Purcotton's makeup-wipe ad showed a woman becoming a man — the apology was worse

In early January 2021, Purcotton (全棉时代), a cotton-products brand under listed company Winner Medical (稳健医疗, SZ:300888), released a video ad for its makeup-remover wipes. The ad showed a woman being followed at night; she removes her makeup with the wipe, and her face transforms into a man's. The implied joke: the makeup was a deception.

The backlash was immediate. Critics said the ad insulted women, treated their appearance as a trick on men, and turned a product for women into a punchline at their expense. The controversy trended on Weibo.

Purcotton issued an apology on 10 January — but the apology became a second PR failure. It contained a few sentences of regret followed by nearly two pages praising the company's history and values. Critics called it a self-congratulatory non-apology. The episode became a textbook case in Chinese marketing of how not to handle a gender-sensitivity failure.