Dettol apologises after China ad linking women’s ‘purity’ to cleanliness sparks outrage

What happens in the advert?

The advert begins with a man dating a woman who is reluctant to stay out late because of a curfew at home. A flashback then shows his previous relationship with a more open and “modern” woman. When he learns that his ex-girlfriend had past relationships, he breaks up with her and makes several misogynistic remarks. Roughly translated, these include “someone else has already trained you”, and comments suggesting she is “desperate” and “dirty”.

The man then starts a new relationship with the woman shown at the beginning. Throughout the advert, he continues to insult his ex-girlfriend while praising his current girlfriend for being “clean” and untouched by other men.

In the final scene, the woman uses Dettol on her clothes to keep them clean. She asks her boyfriend not to put his dirty socks in with her intimate laundry, but he does so anyway. This becomes her breaking point, and she ends the relationship.

The backlash

The advert prompted strong criticism on Chinese social media. Users accused the brand of objectifying women and called for a boycott. Many were angered by the apparent link between a woman’s “purity” and the disinfecting power of a cleaning product.

“What a trashy advertisement. It’s left me speechless,” one user wrote on Weibo, China’s X-like platform. “What a hopeless company. What is their senior management doing?” read another. “I’m never using Dettol again. There are so many brands in the market after all.”

Dettol’s response

The advert has since been pulled down. In a statement on Monday, Dettol said it was intended to criticise gender stereotypes, but that snippets circulating online had distorted its core message.

“We recognise that it has offended many people, especially women. We take responsibility for any negligence in creating and reviewing the content of the advert,” the company said. It added that it would review its content moderation processes.

Dettol also referred to its founding mission to “protect the health” of families, while acknowledging that “true protection also lies in safeguarding the dignity of every individual and their right to be treated equally.”

‘A mess for a cleanliness brand’

According to the BBC, Manya Koetse, who runs the Eye on Digital China newsletter, called the campaign “quite a mess for a brand whose entire business revolves around cleanliness.”

“Even if the intention was to portray the male character as being in the wrong, the message was conveyed so poorly that it backfired spectacularly,” she said.

Not the first controversy

This is not Dettol’s first controversy in China. The brand, owned by British consumer goods company Reckitt, drew backlash last year over an advert that featured the line: “The woman was ‘returned’ just before her wedding; it must be because she was not clean.”

(Curated by Nityanjali Bulsu, who is an intern at The Indian Express.)