JANUARY | #HM

Multinational fast-fashion retailer H&M was under heavy Internet fire at the start of the year after posting an image of a dark-skinned child model in a sweatshirt that read “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” to its official website. The ad got heavily shunned by the online community due to alleged racist undertones, prompting celebrities such as The Weeknd and rapper G-eazy to terminate their partnerships with the brand. The company responded with a public apology issued on January 8, assuring both consumers and angry social media users that the image in question has been removed from all its online channels and the displayed product will no longer be available for sale. “We believe in diversity and inclusion in all that we do and will be reviewing all our internal policies accordingly to avoid any future issues,” the statement read. This being said, the child model’s mother herself did not find the ad to be racially insensitive, urging critics to quit “crying wolf” in a series of promptly deleted Facebook posts. “This is one of hundreds of outfits my son has modelled,” one of her posts read.