An insanely racist Chinese commercial for laundry detergent has revealed a disturbing trend in advertising that men everywhere must take a principled stand against: Women are putting men in washing machines and using highly potent detergents to change their race.
It should be noted that racial attitudes in China are different from those prevalent in America (duh), but this ad is still controversial enough that it’s getting a lot of attention on Chinese social media, according to Shanghaiist. And now it’s blowing up on Reddit, where the collected knowledge of the commentariat has helped place this commercial in proper historical context. Turns out, it follows a long line of racist ads that involve women overpowering vulnerable men and forcing them into tiny washing machines in order to change their race.
This one ran in Italy sometime in the ’00s, and instead of making a black man whiter, it shows a woman turning a hairy Italian dude into a bald, black bodybuilder. Tagline: “Coloured Is Better.”
This might be the OG racist soap ad, at least when it comes to moving pictures (print ads have hit the same notes for ages). It’s Swedish and, according to the YouTube upload, from the 1940s.
And here we thought Cascade was the one doing the dirty work.