Camille Naredo

Article (news)

Swatch

Agence France-Presse

<p>BEIJING, China -- Swiss watchmaker Swatch has apologised and removed an advert featuring a model pulling the corners of his eyes after the image prompted accusations of racism and calls for a boycott on Chinese social media.</p><p>Internet users slammed the &quot;slanted eye&quot; gesture made by the Asian male model as racist.</p><p>In a post on Instagram and Chinese social media platform Weibo on Saturday, Swatch acknowledged the &quot;recent concerns regarding the portrayal of a model&quot; in the advert and said it had deleted the promotional material worldwide.</p><p>&quot;We sincerely apologise for any distress or misunderstanding this may have caused,&quot; the company wrote.</p><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-0" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DNag5PFIV6V/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=540&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A25208730.2%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><p>Many online were not content with the company&#x27;s response and continued to call for boycotting Swatch Group brands, which include Blancpain, Longines, and Tissot.</p><p>A Weibo user with more than one million followers accused the company of &quot;racism against Chinese&quot; and suggested the firm should be punished by regulators.</p><p>Others accused Swatch of deliberate discrimination and urged consumers to boycott the company.</p><p>&quot;The brand&#x27;s image has collapsed. (Swatch) thinks they can just apologise and salvage everything? It&#x27;s not that simple,&quot; another user wrote.</p><p>China is one of Swatch Group&#x27;s biggest markets.</p><p>But along with many other Western luxury brands, the watchmaker has struggled to maintain growth as the world&#x27;s second largest economy has slowed and consumers have shifted to more affordable brands.</p><p>In July, the group reported an 11.2 percent drop in net sales for the first six months of the year.</p><p>It said the slump was &quot;exclusively attributable&quot; to sluggish demand in China.</p><p>Swatch is not the first foreign brand to face accusations of racist advertising in China.</p><p>Italian luxury fashion brand Dolce &amp; Gabbana was heavily criticised in 2018 after it posted promotional videos showing a Chinese model awkwardly using chopsticks to eat Italian food.</p><p>In 2023, French brand Dior also sparked uproar with an advertisement showing a model pulling up the corner of her eye.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Internet users slammed the "slanted eye" gesture made by the Asian male model as racist.</p>

Internet users slammed the "slanted eye" gesture made by the Asian male model as racist.

Swatch pulls 'slanted eye' ad after Chinese social media uproar

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Swatch pulls 'slanted eye' ad after Chinese social media uproar

Agence France-Presse

Published Aug 18, 2025 09:05 PM PHT

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