Kotex, a feminine hygiene care brand owned by Kimberly-Clark, has been under fire for an advertisement video released on a short video platform that shows a man using sanitary napkins as eye masks, foot pads and absorbent wipes.
On Dec. 28, Kotex’s official Weibo account issued an apology letter saying that the content was produced and released by an agency without the brand’s review, “which is seriously against the values of the Kotex brand! It is absolutely unacceptable to us!”
Kotex official Weibo apology letter said, “We sincerely apologize for everyone’s criticism of the video content, which is indeed a failure of work, and did not do a good job of agency management and dissemination of content management. It has been arranged to be taken down at the first time, and the relevant accounts will be seriously suspended for rectification. The company will urgently optimize its internal management process to prevent similar situations from happening again.
It is worth noting that most netizens in the comments on Kotex’s apology did not buy it.
Some netizens bluntly said, “Please figure out who the audience of sanitary napkins really is, and who do you want to disgust by making ads like that?” “It is women who use sanitary napkins. For such advertisements, if you have this time to apologize, you should donate sanitary napkins to impoverished women in mountainous areas.”
There are also netizens who said, “I don’t care about the brand of sanitary napkins I buy, but from today onwards I won’t buy anything from Kotex.”
But there are also netizens who hope that Kotex will change after the apology, “I will apologize and forgive you in time”, “You must be cautious about the audit”, and “Be more careful in the future.” Source