Recently, a local Japanese and sushi chain restaurant released an advert with an influencer to promote the launch of their first ever outlet in the Northern side of Peninsular Malaysia.
The advert was heavily criticised and called out as racist and offensive as the influencer was seen with sellotapes on the sides of his eyes to make it more slanted and using his hands to eat the sushi instead of chopsticks.
Netizens called the influencer out for being racially insensitive and blatantly racist in the advert.
Apologises for his actions
In an interview with mStar, the influencer known as CEO Batu or Black admitted that he had no intention of insulting Japanese society and was trying to instead apply elements of the country in the video he produced.
“The video was recorded last month. It’s been almost a week since I shared the video on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook but nothing happened there. Suddenly a friend informed me that I had received backlash on Twitter.”
“I didn’t intend to touch on racial issues. I wanted to make it look like a Japanese shop, so I made myself look like a Japanese person. It’s my own idea and I had no intention of insulting anyone,” he explained.
“I just put the adhesive tape on my eyes, I didn’t want to insult,” he said.
Black apologised to anyone offended by the video and promised to be more careful in the future.
“I really have no intention of hurting any netizen’s heart. If anyone feels hurt, I ask for thousands of apologies. I can’t satisfy everyone’s heart. Some can accept it, some can’t.”
He also explained that the only criticisms he got was from Twitter and that the comments on the same post on his Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were all positive.
“Everyone has the right to speak and can give their own opinion. Maybe after this I will be more careful when creating content. To those who support me, I say a million thanks. I appreciate all the support,” he concluded.
What do you think of this?
Also read: Local Sushi Restaurant Criticised By M’sians For Their Racially Insensitive & Offensive Advert
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