A make-up wipe ad came into controversy after backlash over accused victim-blaming

In China, a controversial ad for make-up erasing wipes has been fetched from the internet, after it ignited extensive criticism on social media because it demonized sexual assault victims.

The ad, developed by Purcotton (a Chinese cotton product brand), demonstrates a lady walking in the street at night time chased by a masked man. When the man tries to approach the lady, she is revealed using Purcotton’s wipe to remove her make-up, apparently horrifying her and driving him to run away.

Though it was overlooked at the time when the ad was released for the first time, but Chinese people on social media criticized and seized that short video clip, complaining about its apparent victim-blaming message, and mentioning it as disgusting and wrong. Besides this, some of the people started to boycott the products of the company.

One user on Weibo, the country’s social media platform, described that you use what scares women the most for the advertisement, which is beyond comprehension and also it’s unacceptable.

Women are consumers not consumer goods – China Women’s News

A website, China Women’s News, which is run by the Govt-affiliated All-China Women’s Federation, criticized the advertisement video on their social media for demonizing the victim. Moreover, the social media post explained that it is full of prejudice, ignorance, and malice. Ladies are consumers and not consumer goods. The post further said that it is unavoidable that creative ads that insult ladies will be slammed by the public.

Purcotton, owned by Winner Medical Group, contained above 240 stores in the country and around twenty million customers, the firm’s official website said. The Chinese company basically defended the ad as a unique and creative way to promote the cleaning purpose of the product, but when the incident turned into boycott and backlash, the firm decided to erase the video clip from their official accounts and ultimately apologized on 8th Jan.

The company’s post said that they had created a team to hold people to account for the problem and, meanwhile, they will improve content production and the review process to avoid the similar incidents from happening again.

This is not happening for the 1st time in the county that a Chinese firm has been apologized for accusations of sexism.