Unilever needs to make money, but that doesn't mean it can get away with doing anything for that. A senior executive at the company has alluded - in fact stated it unequivocally - in an interview that Asians stink. It is easy dismiss this as just politically incorrect talk with the aim of creating a market for the company's deo products. However, beneath this inocuous characterisation lies the fact that the statement is more about the arrogance of a white colonialist (or in this case a developed-world imperialist) about all things and people he deems as lesser mortals, who are only good and useful for the money they have to buy his cheap deodarants.
How shameful that such a statement has escaped the attention of most poeple in this continent. Asia is once place where a lot of religions and empires were born, the cultural and spiritual cradle of the world. And here is this imperious white-skinned business executive who thinks the people of this continent is no good without his cheap mix of ethanol and some smelly chemicals.
It wold do well for Russel Taylor, Unilever’s global V-P for Axe deodorants, to remember that Asians were the most advanced people in the world, and the best in personal hygiene, when his ancestors did not even care to wash, let alone brush their teeth.
There should be a mass boycott of all Unilever products by Asians till this haughty neo-imperialist is forced to apologise for his intemperity.
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