"Offensively racist" Avril Lavigne music video pulled from YouTube

Avril Lavigne’s latest music video has critics hissing mad.

“An embarassment”, “gloriously ghastly”, a “train wreck”. Those are just some of the ways pundits are describing Avril Lavigne’s music video for Hello Kitty, a single from her upcoming self-titled album, and it seems YouTube is listening.

The video, which shows Lavigne dancing in front of dead-eyed Japanese backup dancers, and singing about “roll[ing] around in our underwear, how every silly kitty should be”, was briefly pulled from YouTube after being uploaded. The video carries what was likely meant to be a pro-Japan vibe, but comes across as culturally insensitive.

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Billboard called the video a “train wreck”, “unseemly,” “an embarrassment in any language” and “gloriously ghastly,”; Entertainment Weekly suggested there are, “serious questions about whether it’s offensive (expressionless Asian dancers, Tokyo-as-prop) or offensively obvious.”; and E! Online said it will leave viewers “sad and confused.”

The Japanese market has largely sustained Lavigne’s musical career over recent years as, though sales have been down in North America, her last album managed to go Platinum in Japan.

What do you think of the video? Is it as bad as the critics say?

Avril Lavigne Hello Kitty

Featured Image: www.avrillavigne.com