The Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch apologized at the weekend on social media and by press release for the character of his latest advertising campaign classified as racist. The pictures showed an Asian model that pulled his corner of his eye up and back.
The pictures referred to the ‘Swatch Essentials’ collection and triggered a wave of outraged comments on social media. According to the Reuters news agency, some of these comments pointed out that the pictures seemed to imitate racist insults compared to Asian eyes. The advertisements have now been withdrawn.
“We have noted the recent concerns about the presentation of a model in the pictures of the ‘Swatch Essentials’ collection,” the brand wrote in an Instagram post. “We take this matter very seriously and immediately removed all affected materials worldwide. We would like to sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or misunderstandings that have arisen.”
At the beginning of trade, the company’s share fell by 2.7 percent on Monday before it reduced its losses somewhat. The Reuters news agency reported this. She also recalled that the company’s shares have fallen by more than half since the beginning of 2023. The company is now faced with customs duties of 39 percent of its exports to the United States.
The group, which, in addition to Swatch, also belongs to Tissot, Longines and Omega, published a drop in profits for the first half of the year in July. This was CHF 17 million (CHF 18.2 million) for the period from January to June, compared to CHF 147 million in the same period of the previous year.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
Fashionunited uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the translation of articles and improve the end result. They help us make the international reporting of fashionunited a German -speaking readership quickly and comprehensively accessible. Articles that have been translated using AI-based tools are read and carefully edited by our editor: Correcting inside before they are published. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me by email to [email protected]