Fashion brand issues apology over controversial campaign

The campaign launched earlier this month, featured mixed-race models to portray beauty in racial diversity. These photos accompanied descriptions such as “60% African and 40% Filipino”, “30% Indian and 70% Filipino”, “40% British and 60% Filipino” and “80% Chinese and 20% Filipino”.

Initially, the campaign inspired memes that played up on other celebrities, such as American singer-songwriter Phillip Phillips, tagged as “50% singular 50% plural”. Nevertheless, the campaign took an ugly turn when it published an ad featuring Filipina-Australian model-actress Jasmine Curtis-Smith on bayo.com.ph as well as on its Facebook page. 

Netizens took great offence to the ad's accompanying blurb which aside from reading: "50% Australian and 50% Filipino", implicates that Filipinos of mixed descent are superior to others. “This is just all about mixing and matching. 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," the blurb read. 

In a statement published on its website, Bayo said: “We, at Bayo, deeply apologise for the message our campaign – ‘What’s you mix?’ – has unintentionally conveyed. We would like to express our regrets to those who have been offended or felt discriminated against.”

“Our company and our partners have always taken pride in being pro-Filipino as we continue to celebrate our uniqueness and achievements. We believe that being a Filipino will always make you 100% beautiful," it further said. "It is unfortunate that this message got lost along the way.”