"The new kids will replace me, will make me a faded star," says the actress, standing alongside another light-skinned woman. Her own skin then steadily turns darker.

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"White makes you win," intones the video's narrator, adding that the product, "Snowz," has special compounds that will help "you not return to black."

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The commercial precipitated a heated response on Thai social media and online forums. The BBC cites one commenter on the Thai-language forum Pantip.com: "I'm perfectly fine being dark-skinned, and now you're saying I've lost? Hello? What?"

"Suggesting people with dark skin are losers is definitely racist," concludes another.

What's particularly striking about the commercial is the starkness of its message: "White makes you win."

Across Asia, from India to Japan, skin-whitening products are huge business. In spite of the diversity of the continent -- where a majority of the world's population lives -- anachronistic attitudes surrounding the virtues of fair skin still prevail. Myriad Asian celebrities, including some who otherwise cast themselves as sometimes progressive figures, appear in ads for these skin-whitening products.

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A few years back, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan attracted opprobrium in India for continuing to be the face of a product known as "Fair and Lovely."

"Such irresponsible advertising propagates discrimination among men, women— and even children," read an online petition at the time.