JD apologises after viral loan ad is panned online for being insensitive to people on low income

The offending advert was produced by JD Finance and went viral on TikTok’s Chinese version Douyin and Weibo. The incident comes as China tightens regulation of online content deemed harmful, illegal or politically sensitive. — SCMP

China’s second-biggest e-commerce player JD.com has apologised after a commercial produced by its finance affiliate was hammered on the Internet for being in bad taste and held up by many netizens as the latest example of over-aggressive marketing.

“We sincerely apologise. There is no excuse... it was completely wrong,” said the company in a statement on Thursday. “There is a problem with the orientation, culture and values... the operations team [in this instance] has blindly pursued performance, lost themselves and forgotten their responsibilities.”