8:52 am, April 21, 2023
Mini has apologised after being accused of discrimination over free ice cream at the Shanghai motor show.
A video circulating online showed two staff members at the booth refusing free ice cream to Chinese visitors but giving it to foreigners.
The video of the incident, which happened on Wednesday, showed them telling the Chinese visitors the ice cream had run out, but minutes later they took a box out of a thermal case and gave it to a foreign visitor, said Global Times.
It added that the video uploader said they’d seen the employees refusing a number of Chinese visitors but offering ice cream to other foreign visitors.
A report by Barron’s said representatives from Mini had told AFP that stocks of the ice cream had been getting low so the hostesses had stopped dispensing it to visitors.
The foreign visitor who was then given a tub was an employee of BMW.
BMW Mini called the incident ‘very unfortunate’, adding that it ‘might mislead judgement’.
In a statement on China’s Weibo platform, Mini said it gave out 600 ice creams at the show on April 18 and 19.
It added: ‘In addition to distributing 300 portions of ice cream per day, we also reserved a very small portion for our hard-working colleagues on site.
‘The four to five foreigners you see in the video are colleagues who are wearing employee badges.’
It said the incident arose as a result of ‘careless management and staff negligence’, which ’caused unpleasantness for everyone’.
Mini also vowed to improve training and urged consideration for the staff shown in the video.
Some commenters have said it wasn’t a case of discrimination against Chinese people, though, but xenophilia – an admiration of foreigners – while others said it was vital to differentiate between xenophilia and plain hospitality toward foreigners.
According to Global Times, the topic ‘apology from BMW MINI’ had gained almost 350m views on Weibo as of last night and was at the top of the platform.
Pictured is the Mini Concept Aceman EV that the company unveiled at the show
