A Swatch advertising campaign raised indignation on social networks and accusations of racism, due to an image of an Asian man making the gesture of bridling his eyes with his hands. The brand has removed advertising but boycott calls are virulent, especially from China.
Negative comments swept up on Instagram on Monday, users of the social network offending a “racist” and “discriminating” campaign and praying to consumers to no longer buy the different brands of the Swatch group.
An advertising image for the Swatch Essentials collection has particularly shocked in China and beyond: it shows an Asian model pulling her eyes up with her hands, imitating the “bridled eyes”.
“This gesture has been used to discriminate all Asians, and not only the Chinese, for decades and it is of public notoriety that this limit should not be crossed,” commented a person on Instagram.
On X, another was indignant: “It’s bad for Swatch, how could it even be approved? Business must do better in terms of cultural sensitivity”. Boycott calls also multiplied on the Chinese social network Weibo.
Swatch withdraws advertising
In a publication on Instagram and Weibo, Swatch says it has “noted recent concerns about the representation of a model in images of the Swatch Essentials collection” and have “immediately removed” all the images concerned around the world.
The iconic brand of the Bienne -based group ensures the utmost importance to this question and presents its “sincere excuses for any inconvenience or misunderstanding that it could have caused”.
“Talking about misunderstanding is racist”
Many users and users believe that it is a “misunderstanding” is “typically a racist attitude”. Contacted by the AWP agency, Swatch did not wish to say more, repeating its remarks previously disseminated on social networks.
China and Hong Kong represent 24% of exports from the Swatch group and are still its first market, despite a strong decline in particular due to the crisis in the real estate sector.
Agencies/LAN
