Aussie ad of man eating bat sandwich sparks controversy; could irk China

Since the very beginning, the global community has blamed China for the spread of the coronavirus to every small and big countries, territories and spaces across the globe.

The World Health Organisation has even promised to look into all possibilities during a credible investigation of how the pandemic began. But China's periodic attempts to shift the blame for the global spread of the killer bug on different occasions, is not only hindering the operation of an open and transparent scientific inquiry but also engaging the Communist leadership in a nasty war of words with other countries.

Relations between Australia and China deteriorated last year to its lowest point in decades, experts have opined, especially since coronavirus started infecting people in bulk. But an advertisement, showing a man gorging on bat sandwich, having more than 250,000 views on YouTube, is expected to strain the tensions further this year between the two countries.

A light-hearted summer campaign commercial

The man in the advertisement is seeing cracking jokes that the pandemic was caused by someone eating a bat.

According to BBC reports, a spokesman of Boating Camping Fishing store (BCF), an Australian camping retailer, said that the light-hearted advertisement was designed to encourage people to explore their own backyard while there remain several travel restrictions around the world.

"Of course we understand the severity of the pandemic and spread of Covid-19 but it is clear that this ad is framed in the same spirit," said the spokesperson, adding that the commercial has already received a lot of complaints by the viewers.

However, the advertising watchdog is no stranger to making to the list of most complained-about ads in both 2016 and 2018.

"Over the years BCF has established a tradition of irreverent campaigns in the spirit of good-natured fun," the spokesman added.

"They will have their detractors and we recognise that," he said.

China-Australia ties

It is true that the early cases of the coronavirus had emerged from an animal market in Wuhan, China, but there is still no definitive proof of how the virus originated and spread across all continents, including Antarctica that permits very meager human population.

Last year in April, Australia had backed an independent global inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had also maintained that the call for an inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak was reasonable and not meant to target any country. But since then, Australian imports, majorly beef and barely, have been under the spotlight while Chinese students and tourists have been warned against travelling to Australia over "fears of racial discrimination and violence against Asians".

Further according to media reports, China, in November, once again imposed taxes on Australian wine of up to 212 per cent, claiming that they were temporary anti-dumping measures to stop subsidised imports of Australian wine.

Followingly, the TV commercial is currently being investigated by the advertising watchdog. As a consequence, China may once again severe ties, whatever is left, to hush up allegations that it has already denied.