Darlie
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Darlie (Chinese: 黑人; literally "black person"), formerly known as Darkie, is a toothpaste brand of Hawley & Hazel Chemical Company. First manufactured in Shanghai in 1933 and later based in Hong Kong and Taiwan, Hawley & Hazel was acquired in 1985 by the US corporation Colgate-Palmolive, although the product is not marketed by Colgate-Palmolive.[1]
Darky, or darkie, is a term used primarily in the United States and Britain to refer to black people, and is now generally considered a racial slur. The package featured an image of a wide-eyed, smiling dark-skinned black male wearing a top hat, monocle and bow-tie, very similar to the Golliwogg in England.
In 1985, after Colgate-Palmolive acquired Hawley & Hazel, the English name of the toothpaste was changed to "Darlie", and the image on the packaging was altered to show a racially ambiguous face in a top hat. The Chinese name of the brand, "黑人牙膏" (in English, "Black Person Toothpaste"), remains the same, and a Chinese-language advertising campaign reassured customers that "Black Person Toothpaste is still Black Person Toothpaste".[2]
The toothpaste remains popular in some Asian countries such as The People's Republic of China, Malaysia, and Thailand.[citation needed]
The brand received a kick of both popularity and infamy in 2004, after the toothpaste, along with other Afrophobic brands were featured in CSA: Confederate States of America which showed it as a fictional brand in the alternate history the film as set in, and the credits after the film revealed it, along with most of the other brands, as being real brands in history.
