Uh-oh! Looks like Bata have landed themselves in some hot soup!
Recently, a Facebook post by a Malaysian netizen has been sweeping the internet.
The post included a picture of an advertisement in a Bata outlet in KLCC, which read “Shoes for: Indian school children.”
The Facebook user called out Bata, claiming the ad in question was racist.
Source: Facebook
In the post, the user expressed his disappointment in Bata, saying,
“Ok now, is BATA that shallow… seriously is this your marketing plan or what. Please sack your marketing manager or brand manager. BATA shame on you. This is is BATA KLCC”
Yikes, this looks pretty bad! What’s up with Bata, lah?
Many other users also chimed in, expressing their outrage over the company’s advertisement. After all, how could any company approve of such a seemingly racist message?
I mean, don’t they know Malaysia is known for its diverse culture and pin pointing one specific race will get everyone triggerreeddddd!
Source: Facebook
Source: Facebook
Although we agree no company should ever condone anything racist, there isn’t much information to confirm that the ad was even meant to be racist in the first place.
The term “Shoes for: Indian school children” could easily be taken as racist without any context. So, what’s the real intention of this ad?
It turns out that there is more to this seemingly “racist” ad.
According to Bata Heritage’s Twitter, the company posted a tweet promoting a shoe using the very same ad that went viral on Facebook.
Source: Twitter
Apparently, this ad was meant to promote the “Bata Tennis” shoe, which was first made in India for school children in 1936. Since then, more than 500 million pairs of these shoes have been sold in the past 80 years.
At first glance, we understand the ad probably appears racist to most people, but that certainly wasn’t the intention.
So come on people! Stop jumping to conclusions and blowing things out of proportion without doing a little fact check first!
Also read: Racist Primary 1 Question from Malaysian School Sparks Big Debate Online
