Darlie, the ubiquitous toothpaste brand featuring a smiling man in blackface, is in fact a Chinese brand owned by Colgate and its joint venture partner Hawley & Hazel.

This fascinating nugget of information is currently circulating around again and has exploded years of assumptions that Darlie and fellow leading toothpaste brand Colgate are rivals.

This revelation stemmed from a brand reassessment currently being carried out in western countries in the aftermath of the debate on United States racial inequality.

Colgate-Palmolive on June 18 said it was working to review its Chinese toothpaste brand, Darlie.

Other brands are also doing the same.

PepsiCo Inc said it was dropping its Aunt Jemima logo.

Darlie's logo is of a smiling man in a top hat.

Its previous name was Darkie, and featured a man in blackface.

However, in Chinese, Darlie's brand reads as "black person toothpaste", or 黑人牙膏 (Hei Ren Ya Gao).

A Colgate spokesman told Reuters via email: "For more than 35 years, we have been working together to evolve the brand, including substantial changes to the name, logo and packaging. We are currently working with our partner to review and further evolve all aspects of the brand, including the brand name."