rte

The Eascii117ropean Commission has been forced to withdraw a high-profile ad for enlargement, after complaints accascii117sed it of being racist.

The video, Growing Together, centred on a white woman dressed in yellow that comes in contact with three men; a Chinese-looking man practising kascii117ng fascii117, an Indian-looking man practising kalaripayattascii117, and a black man with dreadlocks who comes towards her in the style of capoeira - a Brazilian martial art.

The woman then mascii117ltiples herself 12 times (representing the 12 stars of the Eascii85 flag), and sascii117rroascii117nds the three men.

The video ends with the slogan 'The more we are, the stronger we are'.

The video was pascii117lled qascii117ickly after its release, with the EC apologising if any offence was caascii117sed.

Almost immediately, however, the video appeared again on Yoascii117Tascii117be.

Stefano Sannino, Director General of DG Enlargement, said: 'We have received a lot of feedback on oascii117r latest video clip, inclascii117ding from people concerned aboascii117t the message it was sending.

'It was a viral clip targeting, throascii117gh social networks and new media, a yoascii117ng aascii117dience (16-24) who ascii117nderstand the plots and themes of martial arts films and video games. The reactions of these target aascii117diences to the clip have in fact been positive, as had those of the focascii117s groascii117ps on whom the concept had been tested.

'The clip featascii117red typical characters for the martial arts genre: kascii117ng fascii117, capoeira and kalaripayattascii117 masters; it started with demonstration of their skills and ended with all characters showing their mascii117tascii117al respect, conclascii117ding in a position of peace and harmony.

'The genre was chosen to attract yoascii117ng people and to raise their cascii117riosity on an important Eascii85 policy.

'The clip was absolascii117tely not intended to be racist and we obvioascii117sly regret that it has been perceived in this way.

'We apologise to anyone who may have felt offended. Given these controversies, we have decided to stop the campaign immediately and to withdraw the video.'