Thai Company pulls Skin-whitening Ad that Claimed ‘White Makes you Win’

A Thai cosmetics company is red-faced after being forced to pull a controversial ad for a skin-lightening cream that it marketed by saying white skin “makes you win.”

The Seoul Secret “Snowz” video that puts a model in blackface has been yanked offline, and the company apologizes on social media after the viral clip was blasted as racist.

“Thai craze for whiteness rears its ugly head again,” tweeted a prominent social-media commentator going by the name Kaewmala. “It never ends. Thai ad agencies are the worst of them all!”

The 50-second spot featured light-skinned model actress Cris Horwang, 35, who credits her success on the pale skin she maintains with a strict beauty regimen.

“If I stop taking care of myself, everything I have worked for, the whiteness I have invested in, may be lost,” she says.

Horwang’s face starts turning black in start contrast to a light-skinned model next to her.

“The new kids will replace me, will make me a faded star,” she says, looking down at her darkened skin in dismay before eyeing the pale girl beside her.

That’s when Horwang sings praises for the Snowz beauty cream containing a glutathione compound from kiwi seeds that helps you “not return to black.” The compound is known as an anti-oxident — but has been shown to lighten skin in large doses.

In the video, as Horwang’s skin lightens, a tagline appears: “White makes you win.”

Other translations render it, “Just being white, you will win.”

Thai consumers slammed the video on the popular Thai forum Pantip.com.

“I'm perfectly fine being dark-skinned and now you're saying I’ve lost? Hello? What?” posted member 1575141.

“Suggesting people with dark skin are losers is definitely racist,” agreed another.

Seoul Secret responded with a statement on its Facebook page early Friday.

“(We) would like to apologize for the mistake and claim full responsibility for this incident. Our company did not have any intention to convey discriminatory or racist messages,” it said.

“What we intended to convey was that self-improvement in terms of personality, appearance, skills, and professionality (sic) is crucial.”

Skin-whitening products are popular in many Asian countries, including India and Thailand, where lighter complexions are held in high esteem, and darker skin associated with the rural lower class.

The Dunkin’ Donuts Thai franchise angered consumers in 2013 by using a female model in blackface to promote a chocolate doughnut with the tagline, “Break every rule of deliciousness.” The company later apologized.

And a 2011 Pond’s White Beauty series of ads show a Bollywood superstar winning back the love of her life by turning “pinkish-white” using the lightening cream.