Social media users in the Philippines are up in arms over a new ad campaign by Bayo, a fashion retail brand for women. Dubbed "What's your mix?", it features five mixed-race models in an attempt to portray beauty in racial diversity.
An accompanying manifesto explains the concept of the campaign. "This is just all about mixing and matching," says the manifesto, which is not available on the brand's Facebook page but has since gone viral. "Nationalities, moods, personalities and of course your fashion pieces. Call it biased, but the mixing and matching of different nationalities with Filipino blood is almost a sure formula for someone beautiful and world class."
Both the photos and the manifesto were met with strong reactions from Twitter and Facebook users, who criticized Bayo for placing a premium on mixed-race models. The brand had previously marketed itself as "proudly Filipino" in the past, so the turnaround came as a surprise to some users, who expressed their dismay over the campaign. Others wondered how it was possible to compute the models' ethnicity in percentages, which were displayed on the ads.
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