This morning (24th), the keyword "Procter & Gamble" rushed to the Weibo hot search list.
The reason is that on March 13, Procter & Gamble published a post on its public account "Procter & Gamble Member Center" titled "Women's feet stink 5 times that of men?" Don't believe it now smell it" article. The text contains a number of "truths", namely "women's feet smell 5 times that of men", "women also have body odor, and the breasts are the most smelly", "women who love to be clean, their underwear is dirty compared to men", "women's hair is twice as dirty as men", and other controversial content.
At the end of the tweet, a girl wearing the word "Procter & Gamble" recommended her own product saying " We have a 5-piece set of full body fragrance " .
Many netizens said that it was uncomfortable after reading the article. Some netizens said that "in order to sell goods, so step on a bunch of one" and "dirty is not dirty is not a personal hygiene problem", and more netizens believe that the content of the tweet is not supported by research data.
Others pointed out that P&G's move was a "selling anxiety" routine.
At noon on the 24th, P&G officials quickly apologized. The announcement said:
We solemnly apologize for the inappropriate content of a recent article on the P&G Member Center account for the disrespect for women.
Procter & Gamble has always advocated the values of equality, inclusion and respect. We have deleted this article and seriously rectified the operation of this account.
We will reflect deeply and prevent similar situations from happening again.
According to the data, Procter & Gamble was founded in 1837 and is one of the giants of the global consumer goods company, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Previously, in December 2021, Procter & Gamble attracted industry attention because of the detection of the carcinogen benzene in its products.
According to CCTV Finance, P&G voluntarily recalled a number of spray care products of four brands, including Pantene, Plant Sense Philosophy, Australian Silk Kangaroo and Waterless, which are produced in the United States, including some dry hair spray products such as Pantene, Plant Sense Philosophy, Australian Silk Kangaroo and Waterless.
According to public information, Procter & Gamble contains a number of well-known brands, including Pampers, Tides, Hushubao, Haifeisi, Piaorou, Pantene, Sassoon, Crest, OLAY, SK-II, Shufujia and so on.
On January 19 this year, Procter & Gamble announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2022 ended December 31, 2021. According to the financial report, the company's Q2 net sales of $20.953 billion and net profit of $4.223 billion rose by 6% and 10%, respectively.
While factors such as global supply chains continue to drive up labor, transportation and raw material costs, Procter & Gamble is able to "stand alone", which is not unrelated to the company's price increase strategy.
According to the Wall Street Journal, P&G's most recent fiscal quarter saw an average price increase of 3 percent, contributing half of its fiscal quarter revenue growth, with the other half driven by sales growth.
And how much impact will the price increase of products have on Chinese consumers? According to the financial report, as of June 30, 2021, Procter & Gamble's annual net sales were US$76.1 billion, of which Greater China contributed 10%, or US$7.61 billion, equivalent to RMB48.5 billion.
Editor| Lu Xiangyong Du Bo
Proofreader | Sun Zhicheng
Cover image source: Daily Economic News Infographic
Daily economic news is synthesized from The New China Economics and Latitude, Interface News, and Times Weekly