OPPO apologises over controversial 'two husbands' Mother's Day ad

Chinese smartphone brand OPPO has faced backlash on social media over a Mother's Day campaign, leading it to apologise and discipline senior executives.

This comes after OPPO posted a Mother's Day ad last Friday (8 May), which reads: "My mum has two “husbands”-one is my dad, and the other she only sees twice a year". She barely makes an effort when going on a date with my dad, but when meeting the other person, she'd practically wear a wedding dress.”

The ad drew criticism from Chinese netizens, who called the wording vulgar and against public decency, arguing that it wrongly linked marriage to obsessive fandom behaviour and disrespected family values on a holiday as important as Mother's Day. Meanwhile, some saw it as simply young people having fun with internet jokes and felt it didn't need over-analysis.

That afternoon, OPPO removed the ad and issued an apology on Weibo, stating that it had immediately taken down all related materials and would conduct a thorough review of its content approval processes to prevent such issues from happening again. "Our original intention was to break stereotypes and present a more diverse image of modern mothers, whether they love marathons, writing, or having their own celebrity crushes," the statement reads.

However, netizens were not convinced and remained upset, saying OPPO tried to make fandom into a family values issue and also put down real fathers, according to Jiemian News.

Facing a wave of public outcry, OPPO issued another apology on 11 May, admitting that due to its own misguided judgment and a pursuit of online traffic, it had lost sight of its original intentions, overlooked the boundaries of mainstream social values, and seriously hurt public sentiment.

"Due to our misguided judgment, we overlooked the boundaries of mainstream social values, which is why we failed to identify the problem at every stage. In particular, when we saw the many well-intentioned reminders from the public at the beginning, we were insensitive and arrogant. We did not truly understand how people felt, nor did we open up the comments section to sincerely listen to public opinion. This was a very inauthentic and unopen way of behaving," the post reads.

OPPO also announced that Duan Yaohui, the head of its China region business, bears ultimate management responsibility for the incident. His punishment includes a two-level demotion, a performance rating no higher than "C" for the year, and a salary freeze for 36 months starting this month. In addition, similar disciplinary actions have been taken against the head of OPPO's business department, the head of public relations, and the project team leader.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to OPPO for a statement.

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In fact, other brands have also sparked controversy over their Mother's Day advertisements. In 2024, laundry brand Blue Moon faced backlash for a campaign that implied laundry work was primarily a woman's responsibility, using slogans such as "Make laundry easier for mom." One ad read, "In the past, mum used a large bottle of laundry liquid to wash clothes. It was so heavy and it was hard for ,um."

The campaign was criticised as sexist and outdated, with many users arguing that Mother's Day should be about reducing a mother's workload, not encouraging her to do household chores.

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