Rexona tied a Black BBB25 star to body odor in a post — the apology took a week

Rexona, Unilever's deodorant brand and a sponsor of Big Brother Brasil 25, published a promotional post on X on 18 March 2025. It showed Aline Patriarca, a Black contestant, holding a Rexona Clinical deodorant, captioned that she was 'ready to face all tensions without sweat and bad odor.'

Users called the association racist: linking a Black woman to bad smell is a long-standing slur. The post was removed, but the brand's apology came only on 25 March — nearly a week later — after the backlash had already spread.

Rexona said it apologised and reinforced its 'non-negotiable commitment to the anti-racist agenda', calling itself on a 'continuous learning journey' that would 'revisit brand processes from creation to production and distribution of content.' No regulator intervened; the damage was to the brand itself.