Avril Lavigne honestly has no idea what everyone is all upset about when it comes to her cupcake and candy-littered “Hello Kitty” video.
After the clip debuted on Tuesday on her website and then was briefly on YouTube before going dark on the site on Wednesday, a number of media outlets charged that the imagery was insensitive to Japanese culture . That just made Avril laugh.
“RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!!,” Lavigne wrote on Wednesday. “I love Japanese culture and spend half my time in Japan.” She added that she flew to Tokyo to shoot the video specifically for her Japanese fans, in coordination with her Japanese label.
While the official “Hello Kitty” is now on YouTube and Lavigne’s site, on Wednesday there was a moment of confusion when it appeared that the clip had been prematurely posted and then taken off YouTube in the midst of the controversy. A spokesperson for YouTube said the service had not taken the clip down and Lavigne’s rep told MTV News that it was available on the singer’s site and was not scheduled to go up on YouTube until later in the day on Wednesday.
The official version of “Hello Kitty” on YouTube — which says it was published on the site on Monday — had nearly 700,000 views at press time, as well as 9,270 likes and 10,996 dislikes.
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