Mars Wrigley apologizes to China for calling Taiwan a country in Snickers ad
DHARAMSALA, 6 Aug: Mars Wrigley, the company that produces the Snickers candy bar has become the latest multinational company to apologise to China.
Mars Wrigley run afoul of politics and nationalist sentiment in China for a Snickers product launch which Chinese social media users said suggested that Taiwan was a country.
The world’s leading manufacturer of chocolate, Mars Wrigley apologised on Friday after videos and pictures of an event promoting a limited edition Snickers bar that was said to be only available in the ”countries” of South Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan went viral on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, media reports said.
After the incident triggered an outpour of anger on China’s Twitter-like Weibo, Mars Wrigley published an apology on its Snickers China Weibo account.
“Mars Wrigley respects China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and conducts its business operations in strict compliance with local Chinese laws and regulations,” the apology read.
Beijing claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its own and views it as a wayward province to be reunified with China by force if necessary.
Taiwan has been self-governed since 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops fled to the island after losing China’s civil war to Mao’s Communist Party.
Snickers now joins the long list of companies that includes Delta Air Lines, medical device-maker Medtronic and fashion brand Zara, the German auto giant Daimler, Marriott, Versace, Coach and Givenchy to have run afoul of politics and nationalist sentiment in China.