Dove is facing a PR disaster after the soap company published an ad depicting a black woman removing her shirt to reveal a white woman underneath, CNBC reports. When the black woman takes off her shirt, an Asian woman is revealed.
.@Dove apologises after being accused of racism over this advert https://t.co/ddGKt4wma0 pic.twitter.com/ix9V1zEQVx
— ITV News (@itvnews) October 9, 2017
The brief clip, clocking in at 3 seconds, was published to Dove’s official U.S. Facebook page on Friday, and the backlash was immediate. Some users called for a boycott while others pointed to the history books, where racist soap and cleansing ads have continually cropped up for hundreds of years.
Let’s be clear, Dove knew exactly what they were doing with their racist ad. Soap companies used to do this racist theme all the time pic.twitter.com/EzvAiExNcP
— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) October 8, 2017
The company issued an apology for the ad, declining to give any details about how it was produced or approved, but saying Dove plans to reevaluate “our internal processes for creating and approving content.”
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