Hygiene giants Procter & Gamble have been forced to apologise to Chinese women for tweeting that their feet whiff worse than men’s.

The company had posted an article on its Chinese WeChat accounts named ‘Women’s feet smell five times worse than men’s? If you don’t believe it, then smell yours now!” on 13th March.

They explained that women’s feet have five times as many sweat glands as men and that women’s foot bacteria reproduction rate is 2,300 percent, much higher than men’s at 400 percent.

Reports say the company posted the article as an advertisement for their products for personal care.

But the stunt backfired when furious women online called for a complete boycott of all the company’s products.

The company later issued a humiliating climbdown on its official Weibo account saying that equality, respect and inclusion are the things they advocate strongly.

They added that the company has corrected the post on their WeChat account, and will investigate how it emerged to avoid similar slurs happening again.

This is not the first time a foreign company faces backlash for insulting people in China.

Previously, fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci had also faced criticism for their allegedly discriminatory return policy.