Fact Check: Shampoo ad video with a woman clad in hijab is a parody

A video, that seems to be an advertisement, showing a woman clad in hijab and shampooing her hair is being shared on social media with a claim that it is a shampoo ad from Malaysia.

The 14-second video shows a woman in Hijab coyly shampooing her hair with the hijab still on her head. It has gone viral with narratives like

“#Viral video of #shampoo advertisement from #Malaysia”,

“A shampoo advertisement in Malaysia for Hijabi Women.”

Fact check:

The video is not an original shampoo advertisement from Malaysia. It is a parody ad made by a headscarf company called Escarves. The claim is false.

When we performed a search using key frames from the video, we found a 2.13-minute video published by a YouTube channel named MTAS Production in April 2017. The description states that the client is Escarves.

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The company website explains that it is a video production agency helping businesses and brands achieve their goals with videos. On the website, the owner of Escarves Group, Puan Hidayah Sukiman’s testimonial states that their product was in demand after the parody ‘shampoo’ video went viral.

When searching for the social media accounts of Hidayah Sukiman, we found a Facebook account by the name of Edya Sukiman. One of her posts in May 2017 clearly mentions that it is a parody video and has nothing to do with religious sentiments.

According to a Malaysian website named Cilisos, the video was a parody of a 2006 Sunsilk ad. The entire 2-minute long video was to create brand awareness for Escarves which sold hijab in Malaysia. The idea of a Muslim woman putting shampoo on her hijab was to show that Escarves hijabs are really comfortable.

The claim was viral and was debunked by a few fact-checking organizations in 2017 too.

Hence, the video does not show a Malaysian ad for shampoo, it is a parody advertisement for a company that sells hijabs. The claim is false.