• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 30, 2016

So if you're just, you know, a normal human being who doesn't obsess about the latest and greatest in advertising then you likely haven't heard about that Chinese detergent ad from Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd. Co. the world is calling racist. As of this writing, the ad has been viewed 8,223,543 times on YouTube. At least on this channel where it has been posted.

In the ad a painter who happens to be black appears through the doorway of the woman whose home, it is assumed, he is painting and begins to flirt (some would say cat call) with the woman as the camera lingers over her boobs. The woman beckons to the man and, because this is a Chinese commercial and all Chinese commercials are strange, shoves a detergent gel down the man's throat. She then stuffs him in the washing machine because, you know, he's dirty (mind and body) and needs a clean.

When the man emerges from the washing machine, he is not black anymore. Seemingly, the detergent is so powerful that it can wash away all that super bad black that no one likes and produces a super clean (oh why not just say yellow while we’re on the topic of racism) Asian man who smiles adoringly at the very pleased woman. Pleased because, you know, she got rid of that pesky, dirty black guy and now has a squeaky clean, adorable Asian dude to play with.

Predictably, and rightfully so, the internet went ballistic calling the laundry brand racist and, well, just plain stupid. Apparently, no one on the internet noticed this ad has been making the rounds since March according to an AP posting. 

For it's part, Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics issued a half-assed, finger-wagging apology which read, “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. We strongly oppose and condemn racial discrimination.”

Speaking of over-analyzation, that brings us to the part of the ad everyone missed. After the woman stuffs the man into the washing machine, for a fleeting moment, we see the woman sit on top of it because, you know, that's what every woman does when she needs some mid-afternoon orgiastic release.

Oh now come on! You think I'm overanalyzing now? Well, hey, every other conceivable combination of idiotic clickbait wordplay has already been taken for this story by every eyeball-hungry media outlet so I had to do something, right? 

And come on. She did sit on the washing machine and no media outlet commented! It's these important details that matter to us here at Mediapsssst and we'd be doing you a grave disservice if we didn't explore every angle of a story.