Not too long ago, Dove came under fire after running an ad that many deemed to be racist. The ad featured a black model ‘turning in to’ a white model after using Dove’s body wash.
Now, it seems that a company didn’t learn from Dove’s mistake and H&M is now under fire after an image featuring what many are calling a racist hoodie was posted online.
The Dove campaign caused a lot of outrage among many who decided to boycott the company due to the offensive ad and now many are also calling for a boycott of H&M and are demanding an apology after the image that many people deemed racist and offensive was posted online.
H&M posted an image of a young black boy wearing what many are calling a racist hoodie. The image caused a massive uproar on social media.
As a result H&M not only issued a public apology, but also pulled the racist hoodie from their stores completely.
Clothing retailer H&M has come under fire after being called out on social media over an image of a young black model wearing a hoodie that had the words, “coolest monkey in the jungle” written across the front.
Author and NYT columnist Charles M. Blow tweeted out the image of the racist hoodie with the caption, “. @hm, have you lost your damned minds?!?!?!”
@hm, have you lost your damned minds?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/EYuCXLZtv3
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) January 8, 2018
The image was posted on the British H&M website and caused such outrage that shoppers vowed to boycott the store. Many demanded an apology from the brand, but for the garment to be removed completely.
Others wondered how a company could be so tone deaf and insensitive to not see how the picture could be an issue?
Others pointed out that the young white model was wearing a hoodie with the words, “Mangrove Jungle Official Survival Expert, Junior Tour Guide” written across it.
It didn’t take long for the backlash to happen. Singer The Weeknd, who has worked with the retail giant in the past, severed ties with the company after seeing the ad.
“Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo,” he wrote on Twitter. “O’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore…”
woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore… pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018
H&M was however very quick to respond to the outrage. They released a statement on social media addressing the ad campaign.
“We understand that many people are upset about the image of the children’s hoodie. We, who work at H&M can only agree.
We’re deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print. Therefore, we’ve not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering.
It’s obvious that our routines haven’t been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We’ll thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”
— H&M (@hm) January 9, 2018
As evidenced by the Dove campaign we know that racist and sexist advertising is still happening all of the time
While some are calling for a boycott of the company, some are claiming that since it’s the UK branch of the clothing chain that posted the image they aren’t as culturally aware of the problems of putting a little black boy in a hoodie that is essentially calling him a monkey.
What do you think?