The poster had been at the restaurant for years.
A restaurant in China is facing massive outrage from internet users after an image of a controversial poster placed in the eatery went viral.
The eatery is a barbeque restaurant in northwestern China’s Shaanxi Province, and to encourage women to purchase alcohol, they put up a poster showing the back of a lady wearing revealing clothes and the handwritten promotional slogan, “Get yourself drunk to give him a chance.”
The South China Morning Post reported, “A woman who works at the restaurant told the Chinese online media outlet Gongfu Caijing on May 29 that the slogan was just a “joke”, and the poster had been there for years and had never been criticised.”
“It depends on how you think about it. You don’t have to take it seriously,” she said.
The photograph of the controversial poster, taken inside the restaurant, is doing the rounds on social media.
The restaurant’s slogan was criticised on Chinese social media sites for “not just being a bad influence, but instigating people to commit crimes”.
The SCMP further reported that Chinese criminal law states that having sexual intercourse with women who are drunk without their consent constitutes rape, and the perpetrator can be sentenced to imprisonment for three to 10 years.
The local food administration had already stepped in, and the restaurant had taken down the advertisement.
Also Read | #ItStartsWithYourName: Starbucks’s Viral Ad Campaign Divides Internet
This incident is not an isolated case when advertisements by eateries face criticism from people. Last month, an advertisement by popular coffee chain Starbucks divided the internet with its campaign #ItStartsWithYourName, which started trending massively. A section of social media users are disappointed with the advertisement, saying it “hurts” their sentiments, while others are happy that a big brand like Starbucks brought up the issue. The backlash became so severe that social media users even threatened to boycott the company.
