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Ad Standards condemns Mr Wongs Hydraulics ad which plays on Asian stereotypes

Automotive brand Mr Wongs Hydraulics has had a Facebook ad banned for using a negative stereotype of people with Chinese heritage.

The social ad features a business card with a caricature of an Asian man with glasses and buck teeth, accompanied by the words “to fix call wongy…..will do good job, proper fix”.

Mr Wong’s business card, which featured on Facebook

A complaint said the ad was “incredibly racist” while the advertiser, Mr Wong, disagreed arguing he is of Chinese heritage and his surname is Wong.

“The picture below is a screen dump off Facebook of my business card, the picture on the business card of the China man is meant to be a cartoon character of myself and not directed to anyone else and that same picture of the man is in stickers I hand out and have on my service vehicles, employees cars and also my personal cars, this cartoon character is easily found on the internet when you google China man,” Mr Wong wrote in response to the complaint.

Ad Standards said the ad is obviously intended to be light-hearted and humorous, however, the ad “presents Asian people in a manner which incites ridicule and that by mocking their command of English grammar and using a fake name, which is considered racist, rather than a real name, the advertisement is making fun of a difference between Western and Asian cultures which is humiliating for people of Asian descent.”

The watchdog said the caricature and the use of broken English in the ad is a negative stereotype and suggests that Chinese people are not able to speak English properly.

Upholding the complaint, Ad Standards said: “The overall effect of the advertisement is a negative depiction of Chinese people and in the view of the majority this is a depiction that humiliates people of the Chinese race and is therefore a portrayal which vilifies a section of the community on the basis of race.”

Mr Wong said the wording of the ad has since been changed.

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