South Korean tobacco firm pulls 'racist' monkey cigarette ad
Posters across South Korea featured monkeys declaring 'Africa is coming' as part of cigarette branding campaign
South Korea's largest tobacco firm has announced that it will pull an advertising campaign after accusations of racism.
Posters across the country featured monkeys dressed as news reporters declaring: "Africa is coming", as part of a 'This Africa' line.
The campaign was widely criticised by the public online, with one forum user commenting "They basically turned cigarette-making Africans into cigarette-making monkeys ... isn't this racism?"
The cigarette packet itself depicts two monkeys roasting tobacco leaves over a fire, roasting and drying them in the "traditional" African manner.
The African Control Alliance issued a statement calling for the withdrawal of the ad campaign, saying: "We are deeply offended by KT&G's shameless and insulting use of this mocking imagery," It views the ads as "at a minimum culturally insensitive"
It went on to say that "Mocking Africa to sell a product that causes death and disease is unacceptable and we will not stand for the exploitation of Africa by tobacco companies."
KT&G responded that the controversy was "regrettable" and that ads would be pulled this month to "dispel concerns of racism."
"We absolutely had no intention to offend anyone and only chose monkeys because they are delightful animals that remind people of Africa," said a spokesman for the company.
The firm clarified that it did not deem the images on the packet as offensive and so these will not be changed.
"Since this product contains leaves produced by the traditional African style, we only tried to adopt images that symbolise the nature of Africa."
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