German luxury carmaker Audi AG (NSUG. DE) has come under fire from consumers in China for an advert that compared buying a second-hand car to checking out a bride-to-be.
BEIJING (Reuters) – German luxury carmaker Audi AG (NSUG. DE) has come under fire from consumers in China for an advert that compared buying a second-hand car to checking out a bride-to-be.
Audi, which is attempting to revive its sales in the world’s biggest car market, said on Wednesday it deeply regretted the advert and that it had been withdrawn.
The video, which has gone viral since being aired online and in cinemas this week, showed a mother-in-law examining her son’s bride as the young couple waited at the altar to be married, an attempted play on a common stereotype of fussy Chinese parents.
Thousands of Chinese consumers went online to mock the advert, saying it was sexist and demeaning to women. On Tencent Holdings’ (0700. HK) popular chat app WeChat nearly half a million people mentioned “Audi second hand car” on Tuesday.
Negative social media reaction in China can have an outsized effect on brands, with hundreds of millions of people using WeChat and rival platform Weibo.
