Dove advertisement sparks online backlash, confusion
The Dove brand said it had “missed the mark” with an advertisement that has made it the latest target of consumer anger.
But many angry and befuddled Dove lovers spent the weekend wondering what mark Dove was trying to hit with an ad that they considered racially offensive.
The company said it removed the ad post from its Facebook page.
In an emailed statement Sunday, Dove said the ad, a three-second 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 apologize deeply and sincerely for the offense that it has caused.”
The ad, released Saturday, showed a black woman taking off her brown shirt to reveal a white woman, who then took off her lighter-colored shirt, revealing a woman of color in a slightly darker shirt.
Circulating broadly online was a group of four images from the ad showing only the black woman turning into the white woman.
People on social media peppered the company with comments and rhetorical questions: Was Dove saying that inside every black woman is a smiling redheaded white woman? Was Dove invoking the centuries-old stereotype that black is dirty and white is pure? Or that black skin can or should be cleansed away?
“What exactly were yall going for?,” one self-described Dove consumer said on the company’s Facebook page. “What was the mark ... I mean anyone with eyes can see how offensive this is. Not one person on your staff objected to this? Wow. Will not be buying your products anymore.”
Others wondered whether the problem was a lack of diversity at Dove. They pointed to historical examples of racist ads about soap so good that it apparently washes the melanin right out of your skin.
On its website, Dove touts the “Real Beauty Pledge,” a vow to feature “real women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, hair color, type or style.”