Darlie (originally known as Darkie) is an oral care brand owned and manufactured by the Hawley & Hazel Company with focus on Chinese and Southeast Asian markets. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong with manufacturing facilities in Zhongshan. The name, logo, and brand-mascot of the company have been the subject of ongoing controversy regarding racial stereotyping.

History

The brand was launched as Darkie in Shanghai in the 1930s.

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

acquired 50% equity in Hawley & Hazel in 1985. After the entry of Colgate-Palmolive, the brand continued to be sold in several Asian countries, including Taiwan,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. Colgate-Palmolive announced the brand would not be sold outside of Asia. Darkie experienced an increase in popularity and notoriety in 2004 after the toothpaste, along with other racially-charged name brands, were featured in mock-advertisements contained in the mockumentary '' C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America''. It was depicted as a fictional brand that is popular in the alternative history of the film; the final credits reveal that it, along with most of the other brands advertised, were at one time genuine products. On December 14, 2021, Hawley & Hazel announced the Chinese name of the brand will be changed from "黑人牙膏" ("Black Person Toothpaste") to "好來" ("Haolai") starting in March 2022, aligning it with the subsidiary company's name.

Naming

Hawley & Hazel marketed Darkie toothpaste using a parody of American minstrel performer Al Jolson (who had become popular for his

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

performances), as its logo and brand identification. "'' Darky''," (or "''darkie''"), is a term that can be used as an ethnic slur for

black people Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

. The packaging featured an image of a wide-eyed white man in

, wearing a top hat, monocle, and bow-tie, an image closely associated with minstrel shows. Al Jolson

In 1985, when Colgate-Palmolive acquired 50% of Hawley & Hazel, controversy erupted over the brand in the United States, to which Colgate-Palmolive CEO Ruben Mark responded by issuing an apology. He changed the English name of the toothpaste to "Darlie" in 1989, and altered the image on the packaging to show a racially ambiguous face in a top hat. The Chinese name of the brand, "黑人牙膏" (English: "Black Person Toothpaste"), however, remained the same and a Chinese-language advertising campaign reassured customers that "Black Person Toothpaste is still Black Person Toothpaste". On June 19, 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests, Colgate-Palmolive announced it would work with Hawley & Hazel "...to review and further evolve all aspects" of the Darlie brand, including the brand name. At the time of the announcement, the Chinese name of Darlie was unchanged (still "黑人牙膏"). The announcement followed similar announcements made by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

– Quaker Oats ( Aunt Jemima) and Mars, Incorporated ( Uncle Ben's) for their respective brands. In November 2020, the blackface imagery of the brand remained unchanged.

Product and market share

The original flavor of Darlie was mint. Other flavors are available for children. , the toothpaste held a 75% market share in Taiwan, 50% in Singapore, 30% in Malaysia and Hong Kong and 20% in Thailand. As of late 2018, Darlie is one of the bestselling toothpaste brands in its target market areas, with market shares ranging from 10 to 30 percent.

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