A Chinese detergent maker has apologised and withdrawn an advertisement that went viral worldwide for all the wrong reasons.

Shanghai Leishang Comestics’ advert for Qiaobi detergent featured a young Chinese woman popping a paint-splattered African suitor into a washing machine. The machine whirrs away and, to her delight, he emerges as a Chinese man in a sparkling white T-shirt. Picked up by social media and the international press, the commercial was denounced for its casual racism.

In a statement over the weekend, Leishang said it took responsibility for the advert’s content, saying it it strongly shunned and condemned racial discrimination, although it blamed foreign media for amplifying the controversy over the commercial, which first appeared on Chinese social media in March.