Malaysian Beauty Ad Implies Women Must Be Slim and Light-Skinned to Keep Their Husbands

A cosmetic advertisement for Slimme White is causing outrage among netizens in Malaysia after it seemingly implies women need to be slim and have fair skin to prevent their husband from leaving them.

The ad, which was posted on Facebook by the company on Sept. 25, depicts the struggle of a young wife as her husband emotionally and verbally abuses her before kicking her out of the house because she’s not slim, and doesn’t have a nice complexion.

The 4-minute ad tells the story of the couple’s love life, and how it deteriorates over time. In some of the flashbacks, we can see how the husband was sweet and charming, saying that he will take care of her when she gets sick, and cook for her when the need arises.

Image via Facebook / SW DUAL Effect Malaysia

Unfortunately, things began to turn sour as time moved on, and he is not the same sweet person she fell in love with.

In one of the scenes, the wife becomes sick. Instead of taking her to the hospital, the husband throws money at her and tells her to go to the doctor alone. “I’ll be in trouble if you die here,” he quipped.

In another segment, the husband didn’t like the food his wife cooked for him. Instead of offering a better solution to improve her cooking, he threw water on her like an insensitive jerk, which is, admittedly, infuriating to watch.

Her husband then eventually reaches his limit and kicks his wife out of their house, dragging her along with her bag out to the front door.

Without any place to go, the wife decides to crash at her friend’s place, where she, fortunately, receives some support.

While chatting, she gives her a bottle of Slimme White and insists that she drink it — without telling her what the product contains or what it’s for.

Fast forward to one month later, her physical appearance has changed. She became slim and now has better skin.

The wife then bumped into her ex-husband while walking. He approaches to speak to the wife, begging her to take him back because he “still loves her.” But she ends up dumping him in front of his male friends.

The ad comes off as tone-deaf, and crosses the line just to make buzz.

As it turns out, some people actually agree with the message of the Slimme White ad.

“Moral of the story, even if you’re married, you should still take care of how you look. Maybe our husbands are not like this but they still like to see their wives look good. So take that as a lesson,” one user wrote in the Facebook comment section, according to AsiaOne’s translation.

One Facebook user, however, believes that the ad took it too far, implying that it’s too shallow. (Note: AsiaOne translates that monyet means “monkey” and tolong viralkan means “help to make viral”.)