This is a short story because, basically, words fail us.
It revolves around a Weibo post from a Chinese company called Pure Cotton where a masked man is seen staking a woman at night.
At some point she uses a Pure Cotton wet wipe to remove her make up revealing her male gender.
The company claimed it was “humour.”
In the space of a few hours, several million Chinese disagreed.
Now maybe, just maybe, a foreign firm might be forbidden for accidentally straying into sensitive Asian culture. But this was a Chinese brand.
Lets make it crystal clear, rape, sexual assault, stalking, demeaning or degrading someone on basis of sex, gender or physical appearance is never OK.
And sure as heck, is not OK in an ad, not in China, not anywhere.
If you have a social medal ad or campaign planned we offer an Internet content proof reading service at a reasonable fee. We do suggest you use it, it might save you a lot of heartbreak later.
Weibo ad screen shot used in head image comes courtesy of Caixin Global, where you can also read their take on the disaster.
About Bicyu
In 2003 Everlyne Yu co-founded WPBeijing Marketing Studio with Englishman Peter Bic, now known as Bicyu / Aim2D. She began Uengager, a company focused on customer engagement, as a SaaS MarTech company in 2017.
Everlyne is also a key note speaker, lecturer and KOL on MarTech in China. She is CEO of Uengager, business development officer for Bicyu.
Everlyne hs been privileged to work with a variety of international organisations, from VW, Cushman Wakefield, Sodexo, Bristol Myers Squid to local Chinese firms such as Midea, and OK Order.
Hello, Nihao, I’m Everlyne.
I love to talk about and help people understand the amazing ways MarTech and SaaS can work to strengthen your business engagement with Chinese consumers.
I know you have questions or want to talk about your brand or business in China so please, drop me a line opposite. If you prefer live chat, call and talk to me live, in person direct.
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