A Shanghai washing powder company has offered a qualified apology and cancelled an online advertisement that went viral after being labelled as racist.Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd. apologized late Saturday to black people upset by the controversy generated by the commercial, in which a laundry detergent turns a black man into a fair-skinned Asian.In an online statement released late Saturday, Shanghai Leishang began with a long list of foreign media who reported on the advert and then apologized for the controversy generated by the ad's content.But the maker of Qiaobi laundry detergent did not go so far as to apologize for any racism in the advert itself."Because of the spread of the advert and over-interpretation of public opinion it has hurt people of African descent," the company said in a Chinese-language statement."We hereby apologize and hope internet users and media do not over-interpret it."Perhaps the foreign media was "too sensitive," the state-run Global Times quoted a Shanghai Leishang employee as saying on Friday.Chinese internet users last week also lambasted the creators of the commercial."This is undoubtedly racial discrimination," one internet user commented on China's tightly censored internet. "Those that can get on YouTube should denounce the ad and make clear that it is the producers of this video who are racist not the majority of Chinese."On Saturday, Shanghai Leishang deleted the ad - which bears close similarity to an old Italian advert for Coloria detergent - and urged users not to forward it anymore.In the ad, a Chinese woman is doing the laundry when a paint-spattered young black man enters the room and whistles at her flirtatiously.She beckons him over. When he gets close and attempts to kiss her, she feeds him a tablet of Qiaobi detergent and then shoves him into a top-loading washing machine.After the wash cycle completes, a clean, pale-skinned Chinese man appears to the apparent delight of the woman.