Sometimes when a large international company advertises, they should make sure they have a history expert on their team. You will remember the unpleasant story of Dolce & Gabbana which in a commercial of last year has derided one of the most iconic and important actions of Chinese culture, that is the use of chopsticks. Such an event would have been avoided with the presence of a sinologist or one who simply knows a minimum of Chinese culture. Xiaomi this time it seems to have made it big since in an advertising spot threw an atomic bomb on the country that needed it least.
Maybe a joke or a bad shot: Xiaomi advertises Redmi Note 9 in the wrong way and takes the wrath of the Japanese
One of the brand's latest smartphones, Redmi Note 9, was advertised with a nice video which however raised huge controversy. In this video we see all the features of the new smartphone like the Dot Display, the Slo-Selfies, quick charge to 30W and so on. At a certain moment, however, a typical Japanese neighborhood, Asakusa, and a cartoon-style explosion follows. Below we attach the video.
In the sequence that goes from 0:48 to 0:51 you see the classic mushroom fruit of the explosion of the atomic bomb. Not even the time to release the video Japanese community Xiaomi started to flood the brand with criticism. We all know that historically Japan has been the country to suffer more than anyone else from the sad story of the atomic bomb: nobody will ever forget the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The history of a country is very important and is an integral part of culture: although Xiaomi has acted in very good faith, it has not however calculated that gross error could accomplish.
The really ridiculous thing is the flying man we see in the video. It is known that thedevice released on the two Japanese cities had the nickname "Fat Man", just what you see in the clip. For many Japanese users, young and old, this reference is very difficult to accept.
suddenly Xiaomi has retired the video from Twitter (which, however, remains on Chinese social networks) by publishing an apology statement against every single Japanese, user and otherwise.
“This latest overseas promotion contained inconsiderate content and the video was removed.
Xiaomi respects users and cultures around the world and will be closer to its users in the production of new products that promote them. We will do everything possible to prevent such a thing from happening again in the future "
These are the words of Xiaomi Japan, reported on Twitter.