. The luxury German automaker’s Mini Cooper unit had to apologize repeatedly after being accused of discrimination against Chinese visitors when handing out free ice cream at the Shanghai auto show this week. Videos circulating widely on social media Thursday appeared to show two Chinese workers at the Mini booth telling ethnic Chinese attendees the free ice cream had run out, before taking a tub out of the cooler and handing it to a Western man moments later.
Reserved for staff On Friday morning, Mini China issued another apology, saying the Westerners in the videos who got the ice cream were its staff members. The company said it handed out 300 tubs of ice cream per day to visitors at its booth on Tuesday and Wednesday. It also reserved a small number for its employees, it said. “The four or five foreigners you saw in the video are our colleagues. They also wore their employee badges,” the statement said.