BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - Mercedes-Benz removed a video advertisement from a Chinese social media website, state media said, after the clip got swept up in a charged national debate over depictions of Asian-looking features by foreign companies.
The video was posted on Mercedes-Benz's official Weibo account last Saturday (Dec 25) and later removed due to public blacklash, the Communist Party's Global Times newspaper said.
"The make-up of the female model looked like slanted eyes and once again aroused a heated discussion from netizens, with many blaming that the make-up reflects Western stereotypes about Asian people," the paper said on Tuesday.
The report included a screenshot of the video showing a woman who is apparently Chinese, though Bloomberg News has not seen the full version of the ad. E-mails and phone calls to Mr Martin Sauber and Mr Juan Zhou, the China press representatives for Daimler AG, which produces Mercedes-Benz, were not immediately returned.
The episode makes Mercedes-Benz the latest target of consumer nationalism in China that has in the past dealt a blow to Dolce & Gabbana, Hennes & Mauritz and others.
Last week, Chinese social media platforms erupted over allegations that Walmart had stopped selling items from Xinjiang at its Sam's Club grocery stores in the Asian nation. Christian Dior stopped using a photo of a model in November that state media said was "smearing Asian women".
Chinese Internet users have recently been debating the way that models' eyes are shown in advertising. The Chinese company Three Squirrels recently apologised for ads featuring model Cai Niang Niang wearing make-up that accentuated the slant of her eyes, the South China Morning Post reported.
The model hit back on the Twitter-like Weibo service, saying: "With small eyes, am I not Chinese? I totally agree with patriotism. However, creating big problems out of normal matters has become a morbid obsession."
Daimler said last week it would slash its stake in the Denza electric-car joint venture with China's BYD Auto Industry Co following years of weak sales.
BYD will own 90 per cent of the business and Daimler 10 per cent after an equity transfer the companies plan to complete in mid-2022, the Mercedes-Benz maker said. The joint venture was started in March 2012.
Its weak profitability has been a concern at Daimler for years, even as sales for its Mercedes luxury vehicles continued to surge in China.
