Dove faces Twitter backlash over its ‘racist’ advert
Beauty products manufacturer Dove has taken down one of its advertisement accused of being racist.
The ad features a black woman taking off her shirt and transitioning to a different white woman.
The advert went viral on social media and evoked angry reactions from netizens.
Dove have apologized for the ad, writing on Twitter; “Dove is committed to representing the beauty of diversity. In an image we posted this week, we missed the mark in thoughtfully representing women of color and we deeply regret the offense that it has caused.”
— Dove (@Dove) October 9, 2017
According to the New York Times, Marissa Solan, a spokeswoman for Dove, said on Sunday that the Ad “was intended to convey that Dove Body Wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but we got it wrong and, as a result, offended many people.”
She added that Dove had withdrawn the ad and was “re-evaluating our internal processes for creating and reviewing content.”
She declined to say how many people reviewed the ad or whether any of them were African-American.
An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully. We deeply regret the offense it caused.
— Dove (@Dove) October 7, 2017
The ad, a three-second GIF, featured three women, each removing her shirt to reveal the next.
But the transition from the black woman to the white women — compiled into a static collage by a social media user — evoked a long-running racist trope in soap advertising: a “dirty” black person cleansed into whiteness.
Lol did this even look right to y’all? I mean your whole team sat down and cleared this bullshit right here? How? pic.twitter.com/WzsZfpkxAr
— Musimbwa (@UNcubeOthungayo) October 7, 2017
I’m never buying Dove again.
Y’all think my brown skin symbolises dirt.— Tshwanelo Fokazi (@TshwaneloFokazi) October 8, 2017
You can do better than “missed the mark.” Flip + diminishing. Deepens your offense. You do good work. Have been for years. Do better here.
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) October 8, 2017
Yup. I used their soap my entire life. Never buying it again.
— jonalisa (@jonalisag) October 8, 2017
to think that a group of people looked at that picture, put it on a campaign ad and wanted to people to just flow wit it in 2017…. 2017
— BigSeye ? ?? (@deRAYSTAR) October 8, 2017
Normal to DARK. Cause dark ain’t normal? @Dove yeah, done with you.
— I Am (@ThisisDeidra) October 8, 2017
I agree there’s a theme here and it’s long running I have no idea but it’s unacceptable. ? subliminal AND blatant racism ?
— jonalisa (@jonalisag) October 8, 2017
@Dove that apology is weak. People always want to apologize after doing dumb things before they THINK. No more Dove products for me.
— bella butterfly (@ClemsonCutie) October 7, 2017