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China·Human Rights

Dettol apologizes for 'toxic men' advertisement sparking backlash in China

Thursday, 25 June 2026, 06:27 · 1 min read

British hygiene brand Dettol (owned by multinational consumer goods company Reckitt) has issued an apology after a Chinese advertisement intended to mock misogyny triggered widespread outrage and boycott calls on social media. The five-minute promotional video for a disinfectant product featured a man expressing double-standard views on female sexual history, with the ad's closing message framing such attitudes as "germs" that Dettol could eliminate — but critics argued the extended clip normalised the very sexism it claimed to condemn. The controversy drew over 80 million views on Weibo (China's major microblogging platform), prompting Dettol to pull the ad and acknowledge a failure in content review, even as it attributed the material to a third-party agency.

Sources
The GuardianDettol apologises after ‘toxic men’ advert sparks backlash in China ↗︎
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