Race storm over Thai skin whitening ad
Print Edition
A THAI company pulled an advert for skin lightening pills yesterday following an outcry on social media over a product sold with the tagline 鈥渨hite makes you a winner.鈥
It is the latest marketing gaffe to draw accusations of racism in a kingdom obsessed with skin color.
The advertisement for Seoul Secret鈥檚 鈥渟nowz鈥 supplement pills featured a veteran Thai celebrity attributing her professional success to her pale complexion.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not easy to stay at this point for a long time,鈥 the 35-year-old Thai model and actress, Cris Horwang, says in the video. 鈥淚f I stopped taking care of my body and white complexion, all that I have invested will be gone.鈥
The model is then shown in black make-up, casting an envious look at a second woman with light skin who appears by her side.
鈥淎 newcomer will replace me and turn me into a dark star,鈥 she says in the video, using a Thai idiom to refer to her fame fading.
Whitening creams and pills are wildly popular in Thailand, where pale skin is upheld as the standard of beauty in the media and among many Thais who comment freely on the complexion of others.
Advertisements for the products are standard fare on billboards and TV spots, but some companies have faced a backlash in recent years for going too far.
Before its removal yesterday, the Seoul Secret video received more than 100,000 views on YouTube, as well as enquiries on the company鈥檚 Facebook page about how to order the product.
But other social media sites drew posts railing against the advert for being racially offensive and reinforcing the country鈥檚 narrow beauty ideals. 鈥淚t indicates that dark skin people are losers, and this is clearly racist,鈥 a Thai commentator named Tammaijang wrote on a web forum.
The skincare company issued an apology, saying in a statement that it did not intend 鈥渢o convey discriminatory or racist messages.鈥
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