^this. Also I'm ashamed of that Italian ad from which the Chinese one took inspiration

I said it's not racist because I don't think either are racist.

@ OP

People have just become WAY too sensitive with race, letting their own closeted bias cloud their judgement.  They see only see things through a prism of race, so therefore to override that they must point out racism, even where it doesn't exist.  That goes for all races.  For this to be racist, the people involved must look down on and dislike blacks.  I don't get that from this ad at all.  In fact, it seems like all the actors are fine with it, including the black guy who agreed to be in the ad, the one people are getting mad for.  Same goes for the Italian one, where it's a white guy going to a black guy.

No one can choose the color they are born with, so we all just must accept that.  Which includes stop getting so wound up about innocent jokes based on skin color.  Dirt and mud are brown and black.  Clean clothes are usually shown as white (though I guess people would call Chinese people yellow?) in commercials, since that's what shows off dirt the most.  That just happens to also be some people's skin colors.  Whoop dee doo.

Of course race is ridiculously over-politicised and we do often make it worse than it needs to be by just inserting it into everything. I seem to remember Morgan Freeman suggesting the best solution to race issues would just be to never mention people's race again. In some situations I think that'd probably work. In others, maybe not.

You're probably right that they didn't consider anything bad about doing this video. And they probably were just thinking purely in terms of how the colors can be good equivalents to dirty and clean.

But from the western perspective, with all of the history of propaganda against various groups, you just can't help see it as if they're trying to suggest black people are somehow equivalent to dirtier asians and that they need to be improved somehow.

I didn't find either advertisement funny.

The hell..?

Its not racist, but Id say its a bit crude. The implications of the ad is very clear, black dude == dirty. The only saving grace is that this dude is clearly dirty from painting walls or whatever but still. Any other mental gymnastics are just straight up denail. Chinese look down on darker skinned native Chinese as well (class). In Chinese culture darker skinned people are assumed to be poor and/or uneducated (rural farm workers get tanned for obvious reasons, most dont attend school for obvious reasons). Chinese people are not racist but they are VERY direct. No chill or tact at all. They dont stop to think, "will this look bad"

Were all adults here but lets not act like morons. Despite the obvious humor here this ad can clearly be very harmful especially to children. If I was living in China (Im black) and had a kid Id hate to have to watch this ad in their presence and/or justify its existence. Don't dismiss everything with "hur hur humour hur hur take a joke hur hur hur"

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From a Chinese perspective this is just a funny ad.

It's a different world out there. I'd say explore it and find out for yourself what becomes 'racism' to you when no one around you has a clue of what you are talking about. I bet if there was no history like there is between black and white people this ad would be regarded very differently.

You can make fun of my skincolor anytime.

Couldn't agree more. Seems like people here have close to no empathy. If it's something that hasn't happened to them or doesn't affect them in any way, they simply dismiss it.

I lived in China for almost a year and all the Black people I spoke to told me that they were discriminated against all the time. Their English books explain the word "ugly" with a picture of a Black man. It is incredibly hard to find a job, unless you go through an agency. People call them all sorts of names (because they assume that they don't speak Mandarin). There are stories (you can look them up) of men who get beat up for dating Chinese girls and even the police don't do anything to help them when they arrive at the scene. I spoke to my students about Black people and they told me that they don't like them because they are dirty and ugly. In contrast as a white male, I felt like a superstat. People taking pictures of me, hitting on me all the time, talking to me, etc.