Spotify publish, then quickly pull, advert declaring Justin Bieber a “Latin King”

Spotify unleashed a major publicity gaffe when they launched a somewhat confusing advertisement on their Instagram channel declaring: “Justin Bieber, Now Latin King.”

Obviously the advert, featuring the very-much-not-Latin Bieber, caused a lot of offense and was pulled hours after being uploaded.

“We made a creative decision to feature Justin Bieber in our ad because we wanted to celebrate [Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee’s] ‘Despacito’ as a key cultural moment when music genres cross over,”a statement from the streaming company read. “We realized that this could be seen as culturally insensitive so we have pulled those ads.”

The song, which features Bieber singing in Spanish, has been a massive hit single around the world, yet this sales success hasn’t been enough to change Bieber’s cultural or genetic makeup.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.