I wonder if the 7% of Asian population mentioned in the report all be Philippines' people only. Here, people from the city to the countryside practice good hygiene because it's disgraceful to smell. Even if it's a poor country, we bathe with soap at least once a day and never put on the same clothes

Y.A., Davao, Philippines

A small percent of Chinese people do have unpleasant body odor in summers. It's considered a kind of disease, called "armpit stink". Intead of using deodorant, they simply do a small surgery to removie the armpit gland, and it works.

Sunny Yen, Tianjin, China

I have been using LYNX and AXE Deos since 1996 but after the insulting comments from Unilever's vice President I have launched a campaign in my locality about boycotting all unilever products especially the Deos and time's near when whole of India would do the same until Mr. Insane Taylor Apologizes

Sandeep Dewat, Jalandhar, India

English people don't wash their privates either after using the toilet. Asians (Indians) are very particular about washing their privates with water after doing their business. Wiping with just toilet paper does not help in eliminating smells!

Julie, TO, Canada

I must remind some people here: Asia is only a geographic concept. Asians have great genetic difference.
Please read some serious books or articles, you would find that east asian peoples, including Chinese, Japanese, etc. have less alpha type sweat glands and thus have much weaker body odor.

Lei, Montgomery Village, USA

westerners use deo to mask their body odour, . Indians don't use deo b'coz they have bath twice a day.this article shows how foolish russell taylor can get to sell his company's products.

abhishek, hyderabad, india

Nice try for popularity.

ian, London, UK

Why would people from third world countries want to buy deodorants when most are so poor that they cannot even afford toilet paper?

jayil, london, uk

I invite anyone who thinks all Indians have exceptional hygene and can't have body order to spend some time in Silicon Valley or my house when my more distant relatives appear ;-)

Unfortunately I can't comment on the veracity of the claim that Indians smell better than folks in Norwich, UK ;-)

James, Silicon Valley, USA

Oriental Asians (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, not including Indians and Russians etc) are the only ones that don't need deodorant as they have a different type of sweat glands even after hitting puberty still doesn't produce the chemicals found in the sweats of other races.

WJ, ithaca, USA

#2:Rubbishy comments like Erik's (above) are v. offensive too.I've travelled on a crowded African bus filled with locals & their chickens.The people were very poor with eg,shirts splitting apart beyond repair from age,yet sparkling clean.There was never any smell of body odour.Don't offend Africans.

Joan Moira Peters, Whangarei UK Citizen , temp o/seas in New Zealand

I believe that the "untapped market" has already been opened. As many overseas students do tend to wear perfumes, not because they smell but because they can afford it. And as the quality of life increasing in these countries people will try luxury items.

Dave, Worthing, UK

I am a chinese. I think those Asian who actually use deodorant is aimed to make themselves smell much better not to mask their B.O

Gili, Qingdao, China

Oh, what a load of malodour. Funny you say Asians smell. They are people who wash themselves regularly and don't need deos. We in the west use deos to mask our body odour. Asians don't have any body odour because of their hygiene. I think Indians, Japanese and other Asians have natural freshness.

John, cambridge, UK

The smell of natural sweat attracts the opposite sex , that is why Asians breed like rabbits, just look at their populations. Westerners should throw away their deodorants. :-)

jayil, london, uk

Most corporations try to expand their range into untapped markets. You can argue cleanliness is better (and it is, but id rather someone dirty used deodorant) and more natural (but half the ways we improve quality of life arent natural so the second point there is invalid).

Mike, Cambridge, UK

Love the comments. Perhaps we need to look at the thing from different perspectives. My wife detests the smell from a brewery. I adore it. Perhaps instead of arguing who is smelly and who isn't ( and why) we might consider that some smells are not offensive to some people. We are not all the same.

David B, LARKHALL, UK

This is a cheap advertisement ploy by Unilever. Actually the ad should be aimed at the White people. Indians & Orientals dont need deodrants because of their hygiene. Quite an irony for a White man to say it. I would scrap the ad before we become a laughing stock. Honestly they smell better than us.

stuart knight, Norwich, UK

It is the SMELLER who smells! The SMELLEE stinks!

The SMELLER smells the SMELLEE, then goes: "Pew..eee!!

(You know that the World is really messed up when a Yank, even a British Yank, has to teach the British English!!!!)

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

If anyone has actually travelled in India on public or private transport then i think that they will agree that the natural body aroma leaves something to be desired. Long Live Deoderants!

D Foley, Bradford , UK

Probably the reason they don't smell is that they don't eat./drink dairy products. They say we smell of sour milk! Yuk.
Watch their cancer rates shoot up once they start using these deodorant chemicals!
They also eat less junk food and more unprocessed food, and more vegetables, less meat

Alice, Hove,

I'm Asian,I was handed some goodies- deodorant, shaver... when I came to USA and moved to univ. dorm 13 yrs ago. I didn't know what is it and why women need to shave. I found out later that, NATURALLY, Whites have more hairs, somehow sweat more. I still don't use them. Keeping Clean is more natural.

Lucy, Austin, USA

i've travelled to india several times and the most common question i get asked by the locals is "why do english people smell bad? is it because they don't take bath?" they call westeners "gandhe" which in hindi means dirty people. Unilever needs to employ some sensible advertisers i suppose.

Viki, London, uk

Deodorants block your sweat pores. When their effect wears off you sweat more to compensate. The result is that once you start using a deodorant, failure to maintain deodorant levels will cause you to smell. So deodorants create a captive (and smelly) market.

jonathan l, tel-aviv, Israel

I work with white dental patients. they have the worst form of bad breath, mostly because of the food they eat, very much animal flesh based. The flesh gets entangled in the crevices between the teeth and rots. Also flesh consumption causes an internal bad breath. Deodorants are not the only answers

Mohamed Syed, Karachi/London, Pakistan/UK

Chinese diet is such that most Chinese DO NOT SMELL like westerners. So don't count your chicken before they are hatched.

I've stood next to sweat drench workman after 12 hours of work, and no smell like most westerners after a few minutes' sweating.

Nick Polimeni, Guangdong, China

Do people really think that the whole world used to smell before roll on's came out a few decades ago?

Lan, Keele, England

I have been in the hottest, sweatiest trains for 2 days at a time in China and I was the only source of B.O! I am utterly disgusted at this cynical attempt to create an insecurity that doesn't exist, in order to sell a product. I propose that media savy people BOYCOTT UNILEVER.

Tina, Dublin, Ireland

In over two years in India the only BO I ever noticed was on Englishmen. The reasons Indians do not need deodorant is tht they wash twice a day. I include crowded trains as places I did not smell old sweat.

ann llewellyn, Llanidloes, Wales

I have to agree with these postings. I have travelled extensively in Asia, particularly Japan and I have never been overwhelmed by poor hygiene and body odour (ordure) from the local population. How insulting and crass of the advertising & deodorant industry!

Jay, Cavan, Ireland

I prefer the ball kind of deoderant although they can be used elsewhere.

scott, london,

If anyone has ever been to Japan, especially travelled on Japanese tube, he would know that the Japanese are the least smelly people in the world. In fact, they seem to be odourless. Why? They are clean and hygienic. Such campaigns should urge people to shower properly not cover in deodorants...

Aleksandra, Oxford, UK

I agree with Joan that this headline is indeed very bad journalism and is offensive. I wouldn't have expected this from the Times.

amber, london, uk

this ariticle is insulting me and shows very low quality of journalism about asia.

kanzo, kyoto, japan

I have found when travelling in Asia that BO is uncommon even in very poor areas. Walking round markets ,approached by beggars, my olfactory senses were much less offended than in Lincoln High Stree on a Saturday when the Great unwashed venture forth. Free deodorants for benefit claimants, Gordon?

oldand bold, lincoln, ukk

Why is the Times doing Unilever's advertising for them?

And why on earth would anyone buy any Unilever product (Axe, Dove, etc.) when the supermarkets' own brands are just as good and half the price?

Michael, Bedford,

Perhaps they could tell this to some of the foul smelling beasts that I have to endure on the London underground each day too.

Jonny, London, UK

This headline is very bad journalism.It is offensive. Moreover,
it gives the impression that the wording of the headline is that
used as advertising by a firm, whereas on reading the article,
it becomes clear that that particular wording has not been used by a firm, only UK-type advertising.

Joan Moira Peters, Whangarei UK Citizen , temp o/seas in New Zealand

Asians actually smell less than whites, who smell less than Africans, because of different sweat glands. The Asians have less of the bacteria that, when dead, cause the sweat to smell badly.

Erik, Stockholm, Sweden

Articles like this will only spell further disaster for western corporate credibility.

J Singh, London, UK

Ray Harvey has clearly spend too much time in a communist country. People have the right to buy what they want. Asians probably didn't smell until levels of meat consumption and processed foods increased but i have been in so many stinky lifts in Shanghai to think this is a very good thing!

CS, Sydney, Australia

These type of companies are a disgrace, they consume precious resources for unnecessary products.
I live in Vietnam. Personal hygiene here is excellent, people DO NOT smell.
General income levels here are low and misleading people to buy products that they don't need is bordering on the criminal

Ray Harvey, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

another case and point that western inane capitalist stupidity know no limits indeed.

jack, sf, usa