Kutcher ad banned

Ashton at the centre of a race row...

10:49 04 May 2012

Ashton Kutcher has found himself at the centre of a race row, after an advert that he featured in was deemed to be racially offensive.

The advert, for crisp brand Popchips, features the star as several different characters in a mock dating video.

One of the characters the Two and a Half Men actor portrays is Raj, a lovelorn Bollywood producer, and features Kutcher wearing dark facial make-up and speaking with a heavy Asian accent.

Thousands of people voiced concern about the advert before it was removed from hosting site, YouTube on 2 May.

One post, by Anil Dash, lead the criticism:

"If you find yourself putting brown makeup on a white person in 2012 so they can do a bad 'funny' accent in order to sell potato chips, you are on the wrong course."

Founder and CEO of Popchips, Keith Belling, has since responded to the comments via a statement on the company's website:

"We received a lot of feedback about the dating campaign parody we launched today and appreciate everyone who took the time to share their point of view.

"Our team worked hard to create a light-hearted parody featuring a variety of characters that was meant to provide a few laughs. We did not mean to offend anyone."

Ashton is yet to comment.