Nike Olympics ad featuring athlete licking table tennis paddle sparks disgust in China
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Chinese social media users have reacted to Nike’s new Paris Olympics advert with disgust, after it showed a table tennis athlete licking her paddle.
The advert, titled ‘Am I A Bad Person?’, features some of the biggest names in sport, including LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, Zheng Qinwen, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe.
However, six seconds into the video, which is narrated by Hollywood star Willem Dafoe, an actress playing an Asian table tennis athlete licks the edge of her paddle.
The scene caused Nike to start trending on social media platform Weibo for the wrong reasons, with a hashtag referencing the lick being viewed more than 53 million times.
“What does licking a table tennis paddle even mean? What was the person who made this commercial even thinking, that the paddle is clean and sweet, like a lollipop?” one internet user said.
Others said the scene had been deliberately included to anger viewers and cause a stir.
