Facebook aflame over laundry detergent ad in which woman tus black man pale - CNET

You think they might kiss. Instead, she shoves the finest Qiaobi detergent into his mouth, forces him into the washing machine and tus it on.

She then sits on the machine, ignoring the man's cries.

When the cycle is over, you'll never guess what emerges. Why, yes. The black man is now Chinese.

Even the wiliest of diplomats would surely struggle to chuckle this one away.

Indeed, when the Shanghaiist posted it to Facebook it not only gaered hundreds of thousands of views, but also Idea such as this from Claudio Marcius Melfi: "Wow. That is really the most racist ad I have ever seen. Would certainly cause civil and criminal law suits if aired in other countries."

It would cause slightly more than that, I fear.

Then there was this from Angel Negron: "This is great. I remember a few weeks ago Chinese people going off on how they aren't racist and American's are racist. This most definitely puts that argument to rest."

Some, though, thought it, oh yes, amusing.

"It's just a commercial about a product that changes the color of your clothes, there's a version that goes from white guy to a black guy," wrote Xiao Hua. "nobody complained, but omg from black to yellow?? how dare you! You must be racist now! People on the Inteet are just too sensitive for no reason, use your brain and laugh a bit."

He was, I fear, referring to an Italian ad from 2007 that did indeed depict a white man being washed into becoming a black man, because "colored is better." Oddly, this ad had almost identical music to the new Chinese one and several other remarkable similarities. (Video below.)

On YouTube, too, the Chinese ad quickly came before hundreds of thousands of eyes, with one poster accusing it of "raw racism." But again, one reply offered: "Respect to China for not giving a damn about political correctness."