Dove says sorry for ‘racist’ soap promotion
UNITED STATES: The Dove personal care brand is facing heat for a body wash advertisement showing a black woman taking off her shirt to reveal a white woman, with many social media users calling it racist.
Dove has removed the post from its Facebook page and posted comments on social media saying it ‘‘missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully.’’
Dove said the advert, a threesecond video clip, ‘‘did not represent the diversity of real beauty which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened ... we apologise deeply and sincerely for the offence that it has caused’’.
While that post has been taken down, there are screenshots from the advert circulating broadly online. One is a group of four images from the advert that show only the black woman turning into the white woman.
Social media users said there were racist implications of a soap advert that showed a black woman transforming into a white woman. Many who criticised the imagery said it suggests black skin is dirty and white skin is clean, and noted there is a historical legacy of racism in soap ads.
It’s not the first time Dove has been criticised for being racially insensitive in an advert. A 2011 version showing two women of colour and a white woman standing in front of ‘‘before’’ and ‘‘after’’ signs was also criticised .
Dove, which is owned by British-dutch company Unilever, has long had an advert campaign that highlights women’s diversity. – AP