Fortune Article: Women in China Are Really offended by This Ikea Ad

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Alexandra Geiger

Student ID: 102346613

Fortune Article: Women in China Are Really Offended by This Ikea Ad 

By: Claire Zillman

Zillman , C. (2017, October 26). Women in China Are Really Offended by This Ikea Ad. Retrieved November 07, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2017/10/26/ikea-ad-china-women/

ABSTRACT: “Ikea has apologized for a television commercial in China and pulled it from the air after some viewers called it sexist. The 30-second spot features a couple and their grown daughter sitting down for a meal. The mother scolds the daughter: “If you don’t bring home a boyfriend next time, then don’t call me Mom!” Moments later, a young man, holding a bouquet, appears at the door. In a snap, the parents lay out their Ikea place settings and a lavish meal for their daughter’s new boyfriend. The Swedish furniture company is known for relying on deep research to translate its Scandinavian products to other cultures. (For instance, one company study found that in Shenzhen, China, people sat on the floor and used Ikea sofas as a backrest.) That kind of analysis has helped fuel Ikea’s global expansion. But critics in China say the TV ad lacked that kind of cultural awareness, blasting it as sexist and insensitive to the country’s single women. According to the BBC, one Weibo user said the commercial “discriminates against singles and single women.” ….

Why did the commercial strike such a nerve? It aired as women in China try to push back against the intense societal pressure to get married by a certain age. Chinese women who are not wed by age 27 are branded as “leftover women”—a term coined by the Chinese Women’s Federation in 2007—and are considered to have longer odds of finding a spouse. The pressure to marry is due, in part, to the severe gender imbalance caused by China’s recently-abandoned one-child policy that prompted families to favor sons over daughters. There’s such a disparity—an estimated 117 boys to every 100 girls—that one well-known economist suggested that multiple men be allowed to share one wife.” (ZiIllman, 2017).

Just last month, Swedish furniture company IKEA, made a huge cultural overlook. They came out with a new commercial to be broadcasted in China. The commercial showed a family sitting down for dinner with their daughter home. The mother said to the daughter something along the lines of “if you don’t bring a boyfriend home with you next dinner, don’t call me mom”. It was meant to be funny but was not taken lightly by the single female community in China. There is great stress for a woman in China to get married at a relatively young age (under 30). Women who are not married after 28 are known as the “left over women”. This is a very touchy and sensitive thing to joke around about. IKEA Immediately pulled the ad and released an apology. But, this is something that for IKEA is very rare. IKEA invests a lot of money into researching and understanding markets before entering them. There is a huge lesson to be learned here for not only IKEA but all international companies on understanding their market.