Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) apologized after one of its articles published on a Chinese WeChat account saying women’s feet smell worse than men’s sparked anger on the internet.
The article, which is published on the company’s membership center WeChat account, is titled “women’s foot odor is five times worse than male’s. You can smell it if you don’t believe it.”
It says that women’s foot sweat gland is five times the number of male’s, as that women’s foot bacteria reproduction speed is 2,300 percent, much higher than men’s 400 percent.
The article sparked criticism and controversy on China’s social media platforms, with a lot of netizens accusing P&G of not showing enough respect for female. Some users of China’s twitter-like Weibo platform are listing P&G’s brands and call for a boycott of those brands.
“I chose other brands to place orders; they(P&G) don’t care for the money of female consumers,” one netizen wrote.
P&G had already deleted the WeChat article as of press time.
The company also published an apology statement on its official Weibo account, saying that the company always advocates the mindset of equality, inclusion and respect. It also said the company has “seriously rectified” the WeChat account’s operation, and will deeply reflect on the matter to prevent such things from happening again.
A P&G stand in a supermarket in Nantong, East China’s Jiangsu Province. File photo: CFP
