Blind people across multiple Chinese cities turned out in front of Pizza Hut restaurants to protest against Pizza Hut’s latest online video.
The controversy stems from a dialogue between the two characters below, paired with the below image of a blind shrimp ball.
The male cartoon on the left says, “Do you know why the ball is rolling around everywhere? Because it’s a shrimp (blind) ball”.
In Chinese ‘shrimp’ is said in the same way as you would say blind. ‘Ball’ in this instance also has a subtle negative meaning. This is emphasized by an onscreen display of a shrimp ball, wearing sunglasses and holding a striped cane next to the characters “虾”(SHRIMP) “瞎”(BLIND).
Below is a news report showing one particular protest outside a Pizza Hut restaurant in Shi Jia Zhuang, Hebei province.
Pizza Hut have now issued a formal apology and pulled the online video. At the time of writing, the video could no longer be found online.
