German DIY chain's 'racist' advert provokes anger in South Korea

[signal]

Frankfurter Allgemeine
Deutsche Welle
Guardian

A German advertisement showing an Asian woman becoming aroused after smelling dirty laundry worn by white men has fuelled anger in Seoul, with many women calling it racist and demanding an apology.

The commercial, produced by the German DIY-store chain Hornbach, shows white men working outside in a garden before removing their sweaty clothing and dumping it in a box. The ad then cuts to a grey, industrial city that resembles Tokyo where an Asian woman buys a bag of dirty clothes – previously worn by the men – opens it and moans with pleasure, as the commercial ends with a slogan saying: "That's how the spring smells."

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An online petition asking for a public apology from the German firm and the removal of the ad had secured almost 1,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon. [15,000 now]

Angry users on social media accused the company of promoting stereotypes against Asian women. "How many more Asian female voices will you need to take us seriously and be aware of your thoughtless deeds and apologise?" a South Korean woman tweeted to Hornbach, which uploaded the ad on 15 March.

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The German firm has defended the commercial, tweeting that it was not racist and that it showed the "decreasing quality of life in cities". The firm also said the industrial town featuring the Asian woman was meant to be a "fictional city", not one based in Asia.

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The ad doesn't seem to be targeting South Korea specifically but it might just have become more known in certain social media circles there. Lots of Korean / Chinese / Japanese comments on the video though.

The other ad that the chain tweeted (with the non-Asian woman) seems to back up their claim, though that advertisement apparently hasn't appeared anywhere.

 

[Stinkles]

I not know if racist


But gross est ja klar -aber nicht gross like "big" but like stank (oder stankgeschmeldt)

 

[Heroicpiglet]

the ads made me gag, eww

 

[activepassive]

What is the stereotype about Asian Women that it reinforces?

 

[ConHaki66]

if only they gave that much shit about making fun of black people

 

[Necromanti]

Are vending machines with "used" panties a thing in South Korea, too? I thought it was one of those Japanese oddities that get brought up a lot (relative to how uncommon they might be).

 

[TheCthultist]

...I'm not seeing the racism here...

 

[t26]

if only they gave that much shit about making fun of black people

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I am glad we have "whataboutism" show up in under 5 post.

 

[RM8]

I'm not understanding why this is racist.

 

[smurfx]

Are vending machines with "used" panties a thing in South Korea, too? I thought it was one of those Japanese oddities that get brought up a lot (relative to how uncommon they might be).

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i honestly thought that was what they were going for but who knows though.

 

[signal]

I not know if racist
But gross est ja klar -aber nicht gross like "big" but like stank (oder stankgeschmeldt)

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What is the stereotype about Asian Women that it reinforces?

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...I'm not seeing the racism here...

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I'm not understanding why this is racist.

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I didn't read more than like two twitter posts but the ones I read were from Asian women and I think the assumed racism might be an implied love of western men by Asian women?

The petition page has a section on it but I don't know, many people seem confused https://www.change.org/p/wolfgang-r...acist-company-hornbach-ag?recruiter=945859576

Something about the woman's orgasmic expression as well.

Are vending machines with "used" panties a thing in South Korea, too? I thought it was one of those Japanese oddities that get brought up a lot (relative to how uncommon they might be).

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It's not that I think lol.

 

[Stinkles]

It's 100% playing on the weird exaggerated Japanese panty vending machine thing but I'm not sure it's doing anything but trying to hard to be surreal.

 

[Akira86]

What is the stereotype about Asian Women that it reinforces?

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I thought they were doing an inversion of the "men like (asian) school girl panties" theme

 

[Bitch Pudding]

Getroffene Hunde bellen.

 

[L Thammy]

Women liking the smell of men's clothes is not all that weird - it's part of where the whole cheerleader wearing the jock's blazer thing comes from. I feel like it's got to be the panty vending machine thing, getting some foreign stranger's clothes.

 

[Dabanton]

What is the stereotype about Asian Women that it reinforces?

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That they are white men's 'playthings' and or seek out white male acceptance.

It's a very touchy subject.

 

[JustinP]

I read the OP and watched the ad and still don't know what they're advertising

edit: so it's like Home Depot? and the pitch is... living in the city makes you miss the smell of sweat because you don't have to do yard work?

Just the store, no product in particular. All of their spots show people build or fix something on their property by themselves, no matter how ridiculous an undertaking. Everybody knows by now, so they can do shit like this and people still know what's up.

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that makes sense, thanks

 

[Euler.L.]

Doesn't even look like it's that big of an outcry in Korea anyway. Smells like one of those we found three tweets about something outcry articles.

 

[Deleted member 2761]

A nice combo of using a subservient background Asian scientist as a prelude to depicting Asian women as repressed sexual deviants that unconditionally lust after white men. I give it an 8.4/10 for racism. Exquisite.

 

[Biestmann]

I read the OP and watched the ad and still don't know what they're advertising

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Just the store, no product in particular. All of their spots show people build or fix something on their property by themselves, no matter how ridiculous an undertaking. Everybody knows by now, so they can do shit like this and people still know what's up.

 

[Donos]

Thought it's a take on the vending machines in Japan /Asia where men can buy used painties.

 

[Alwayscrazybacon]

This has been shared on Chinese social media, people think it's funny here. It's just a genderswap of the schoolgirl pantie vending machines.

 

[Deleted member 2761]

We're still on the first page and we got people going "I don't see what's the big deal" and "Asians who don't experience racism in their own ethnically homogeneous countries thinks it's okay." Waiting on other timeless classics like, "I asked my Asian spouse and they thought it was funny" or linking some similarly racist ad but made in Asia to imply that racism is okay because the Asians do it too. We can speedrun this before the snap. I believe in you, ERA.

 

[Euler.L.]

We're still on the first page and we got people going "I don't see what's the big deal" and "Asians who don't experience racism in their own ethnically homogeneous countries thinks it's okay." Waiting on other timeless classics like, "I asked my Asian spouse and they thought it was funny" or linking some similarly racist ad but made in Asia to imply that racism is okay because the Asians do it too.

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I don't see your bogeymen here. Of course your opinion is also surely more worth than anyone's else opinion.

And as Asian I read such posts as yours always as guilty white guy thinks it needs to teach other people about its superior morality, because we don't know it better.

 

[Kin5290]

Eh, this is obviously a genderflipped take on the Japanese schoolgirl panty vending machines. Kinda weird but not exactly "Me love you long time".

 

[Deleted member 2761]

I don't see your bogeymen here. Of course your opinion is also surely more worth than anyone's else opinion.

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Yeah, I'm pretty qualified. Thanks for recognizing that.

And as an Asian I read posts like yours like a white guy who thinks its okay to talk over other people's pain because you know better.

 

[KillLaCam]

Maybe it would have worked better if the guy was not white

Even though it's iffy the person using the vending machine has to be Asian .Since it's supposed to be a gender swap of the Japanese panty vending machine thing. (Unless those also exist somewhere in the West)

 

[GasProblem]

The ad is on tv here and I hate it. It does everything but make me want go to Hornbach.

 

[boris_feinbrand]

Man Hornbach Ads are always edgy. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I liked the one where the customer got slapped in the face by a random hand coming out of the shelf after complaining about the discount being only temporary.

 

[Nephtis]

I can see where they were going with it and I don't think it's racist, but the ad just made me cringe to the nth degree lol

I didn't particularly find it funny or anything either

 

[Xiao Hu]

The thing is you could swap the 'receiving end' of this ad very easily with any location that is heavily industrialised and has no connection to urban gardening. It just happened to be an Asian setting with an unintended audience waaayyyyyy too sensitive to understand the ad

 

[Euler.L.]

Yeah, I'm pretty qualified. Thanks for recognizing that.

And as an Asian I read posts like yours like a white guy who thinks its okay to talk over other people's pain because you know better.

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What a nice No u...! take

 

[Airbar]

The thing is you could swap the 'receiving end' of this ad very easily with any location that is heavily industrialised and has no connection to urban gardening. It just happened to be an Asian setting with an unintended audience waaayyyyyy too sensitive to understand the ad

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I think that is like exactly their intention but tbqh ask anyone around here in Europe about heavily polluted cities without much urban gardening and most people would probably say any East Asian city. No idea if you can stereotype cities but when I think of polluted air and smog I think of Peking.
Air pollution is bad in cities here in Europe but cities are still pretty "green" spots all throughout cities.

 

[Hypron]

Doesn't even look like it's that big of an outcry in Korea anyway. Smells like one of those we found three tweets about something outcry articles.

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I'm not sure how big of an issue it has become (i.e. does it get discussed on local TVs in east asia and stuff), but the Japanese comments on the video are overwhelmingly negative, and looking at the emojis in the Chinese and Korean comments they're probably about the same.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

I don't think the asian woman is supposed to be aroused and it's supposed to be a side blow to the bad air quality in asian cities.

Would've worked better if they didn't take a woman though.

 

[Klyka]

reminds me of Japanese schoolgirl underwear vending machines

 

[Mendrox]

Well I am German and I can see the outrage.

 

[signal]

Why the hell does everyone know about these stupid vending machines lol. More people in the west know that these two or three machines exist than people in Japan know.

Entire knowledge of Japan is from memes and Vice articles.

 

[Alice]

They're hardware stores, not "DIY chains".

As for the commercial itself... What are they even trying to say with this?

 

[RestEerie]

The first few comments reminds me that ERA is mostly a forum occupied by dudes in the western world.....thus the lack of understanding.

This ad is 'somewhat' offending to the Asian ladies because it kinda reinforce Asian ladies are awe-struck and sexually attracted to white men..

I'm not sure racism is the correct term but it's definitely a form of stereotype it is trying to portray.

P.S. Am Asian guy, Singaporean to be specific. In Singapore and Malaysia, ladies that are 'into' western white dudes are given the term 'Sarong Party Girl' (SPG).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarong_party_girl

The stereotypical Sarong Party Girl has a false foreign accent and is provocatively dressed. The Sarong Party Girl stereotype in local entertainment is usually portrayed as a gold-digging, husband-snatching Asian woman. This perception contributed much to Singapore's decadent image in the 1970s, as seen in films such as Saint Jack.

Due to these stereotypes, women who are classified as SPGs have to endure negative sweeping statements. Nowadays SPGs are no longer identified by a unique dress code or appearance. Any local woman who prefers to mix with males of a Caucasian ethnicity, or seeking them as their romantic partner will be seen as an 'SPG'. "An SPG is commonly perceived as a racist and Caucasian fetishist who discriminates against their own community and race, while showing a favoritism towards their preferred supreme races".[citation needed] This is a stereotype affixed to the classification of an SPG.

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Please for goodness sakes, people...understand more global context instead having just one perspective (from the west).

 

[Deleted member 9305]

Full circle moment? ... NSFW

 

[Deleted member 2779]

A nice combo of using a subservient background Asian scientist as a prelude to depicting Asian women as repressed sexual deviants that unconditionally lust after white men. I give it an 8.4/10 for racism. Exquisite.

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Eh let's round it up to a 9.

 

[Brazil]

This is clearly pretty bad. It gets one yike from me.

They're hardware stores, not "DIY chains".

As for the commercial itself... What are they even trying to say with this?

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I guess the point is that DIY stuff is cool.

 

[GiantEnemyCrab]

My (japanese) wife told me about this the other day. Apparently it was on Yahoo Japan news or something.

She also said that now some Japanese are angry because there was some Japanese text in there and now people think the woman is Japanese?

Edit: Having finally watched it now it just seems kinda gross...

Btw, isn't the "scientist" guy on the right Asian, too?

 

[Klyka]

Hornbach usually has pretty memorable ads that are al about showing people working on a project at home or in their garden.
i'm honestly pretty flabbergasted how they suddenly came up with this.
is there only this one ad? from the hornbach tweet in the OP it seems there is one where a white woman smells it too?

 

[SigSig]

Yeah, that ad made me do a double take. Gross (in a good way, though, usually) ads aren't exactly a new thing to Hornbach, but this is just feels weird.

 

[Nightbird]

I thought it was subversion of the whole "used panties" vending machines thing.


But still, this is a weird ad, even for Hornbach.

 

[ByteCulture]

Reminds me of the Asian Spot where the fat sumo guys run on a band and then they send the sweaty "Underpants" from them, supposed to be underpants from a girl, to another guy who ordered it from japan.

Seems like they just answered the call

 

[Red Liquorice]

At least the guys are hot for once. :)

 

[Kaseoki]

The first few comments reminds me that ERA is mostly a forum occupied by dudes in the western world.....thus the lack of understanding.

This ad is 'somewhat' offending to the Asian ladies because it kinda reinforce Asian ladies are awe-struck and sexually attracted to white men..

I'm not sure racism is the correct term but it's definitely a form of stereotype it is trying to portray.

P.S. Am Asian guy, Singaporean to be specific. In Singapore and Malaysia, ladies that are 'into' western white dudes are given the term 'Sarong Party Girl' (SPG).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarong_party_girl




Please for goodness sakes, people...understand more global context instead having just one perspective (from the west).

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Agreed. A lot of the posts at the beginning are missing an important point.

There was a decision that the receiver of the packaged shirt was a woman. An Asian woman to be exact. It could have easily been a man and become a gay gag joke, but no they purposely put a woman.