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Chinese company apologizes for racist ad

By Shawn Price
The Chinese detergent company responsible for the widely seen ad on YouTube that viewers mocked as racist has apologized. The company has tried to remove the ad from the internet in Asia and has asked other media entities to also remove the ad. The commercial has received seven million views on YouTube. Screen shot: Benoit Florencon/YouTube
The Chinese detergent company responsible for the widely seen ad on YouTube that viewers mocked as racist has apologized. The company has tried to remove the ad from the internet in Asia and has asked other media entities to also remove the ad. The commercial has received seven million views on YouTube. Screen shot: Benoit Florencon/YouTube

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SHANGHAI, May 31 (UPI) -- A Chinese detergent company responsible for the commercial that viewers around the world mocked as racist apologized.

The Qiaobi laundry detergent commercial depicts a young, black man being shoved into a washing machine, being washed and coming out a pale Asian man.

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The company used Chinese social media on Saturday to declare it had "no intention of discriminating against people of color. The color of one's skin is not the standard by which we should judge each other. We strongly oppose and condemn racial discrimination."

"[Due to] the harm that has been caused to members of the ethnic African communities as a result of the advertisement's circulation and the over-dramatization by the public opinion, we hereby express our apology and sincerely hope that the internet users as well as media will not over-analyze."

Qiaobi also said it has tried to remove the ad where it could and hoped that other media "will not continue to circulate it."

The ad has gathered nearly seven million views on YouTube in less than a week.

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