The Ivy Asia restaurant in London has apologized for a racist marketing video it posted to Instagram, BBC reports.
The video showed two women dressed up as geishas being transported to the restaurant in a rickshaw. The elderly Asian man is unable to push them, so a “hero” appears to help. The video used stereotypical music and sounds.
Food writer Jay Rayner described the advert as “premeditated racist stereotyping,” Sky News reports. MiMi Aye, an Asian food writer, tweeted about the offensive video.
“I just watched this and I don’t want to live any more,” Aye wrote.
The Ivy Asia removed the video and posted an apology to Instagram.
“We would like to sincerely apologise for the offence caused by our marketing video,” the apology reads. “It was wrong. It was done naively and it was totally inappropriate and culturally insensitive. We had a complete ignorance of understanding.”
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