Swedish furniture retailer IKEA has withdrawn a television advertisement in China featuring a mother who threatened to disown her unmarried daughter after it unleashed a wave of criticism on social media for being sexist and insulting to single women.
The 30-second advertisement showed a family dinner scene where a Chinese mother declared sternly to her somber-looking daughter: “If you cannot bring back a boyfriend, don’t call me Mum.”
A young man then appeared at the door with flowers and the delighted parents set up their dining table with IKEA tableware and decorations. The scene ended with the tagline “celebrate everyday’s life.”
IKEA apologized for the advertisement after critics said it stigmatized China’s young single women, who are colloquially known as the “leftover women,” a term coined to refer to professional women who have not married by their late 20s.
Young Chinese women have in recent years fought back against such discrimination.
“The TV ad has been withdrawn from all channels by IKEA China,” the Swedish retailer’s China spokeswoman Linda Xu (許麗德) said.
“We understand the concern caused by this TV advertisement and sincerely apologize for giving the wrong perception,” the company said in a statement.
IKEA’s apology, which was uploaded on Weibo (微博), China’s equivalent of Twitter, prompted more than 1,500 comments, where users called the advertisement “disgusting” and “old-fashioned,” with some calling for a boycott of IKEA products.
“This is clearly sexist, I am disappointed,” a user wrote on Weibo.
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