London’s Ivy Asia restaurant removes ‘culturally insensitive’ advert which ‘looked like a sketch from Little Britain’

A restaurant has apologised and removed a “culturally insensitive” advert after it was heavily criticised on social media.

The Ivy Asia in west London has removed its video and confirmed it will conduct an internal review after the advert was compared to a Little Britain sketch.

The video featured women dressed as geishas struggling to get into a rickshaw being pulled by an elderly Asian man. In the clip, it is tipped over and they are saved by a strong man who appears from nowhere and is labelled “the hero”, taking the rickshaw and driving them to the restaurant at speed. The sound of gongs and other music plays in the background.

Once there, they struggle to get through the doors with bags of shopping. They then fall through the doors and other customers stare at them.

“Meet a friend for a Zen lunch,” the advert suggests, with text that appears on screen in front of a red background with the outline of dragons and fans around it.

Yes, really.

Food writer Jay Rayner said the advert featured “premeditated racist stereotyping”.

Others on social media were equally perturbed despite the restaurant’s apology:

In a statement posted on Instagram, the Ivy Asia said: “We would like to sincerely apologise for the offence caused by our marketing video. It was wrong. It was done naively and it was totally inappropriate and culturally insensitive.

“We had a complete ignorance of understanding.

“We are conducting an immediate internal review into our marketing processes and publication guidelines to make 100% sure this does not happen again.

“We need to educate ourselves and we are already looking to engage the relevant external bodies to review concept, culture and all internal and external processes.

“We must learn lessons and move forward in a totally new and appropriate way. Once again, we apologise unreservedly.”