Over the past months, I was genuinely excited about launching my upcoming line and collaboration with H&M…… Unfortunately, after seeing the disturbing image yesterday, my excitement over our global campaign quickly evaporated, and I’ve decided at this time our partnership needs to end. I’m deeply offended and will not be working with anymore….Īlso, G-Easy, the Californian rapper whose real name is Gerald Earl Gillum ended his partnership with the Swedish company saying Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. Not only that, according to The Rolling Stone, The Weeknd the Canadian singer whose real name is Abel Tesfaye has severed ties with H&M after coming across the photo online. The fashion statement portrayed this time around is insensitive, degrading and borderline disrespectful to the black people and they have responded by pushing for people to boycott H&M products using #boycottHandM amongst other variants hashtags. In a very sensitive society where everything said or done are continually measured by the impact it has on the society itself. What exactly was the plan in the first place? And how was this ad able to meet approval before it hits their stores? Even though the mother of the young black model later came out in support of the move and told us to mind our own business, H&M should have been able to refuse to go ahead with such an ad but I guess there was an intent. The first thing that comes to mind is “what exactly were they thinking to come up with such an ad”. But somehow, this particular design was able to slip through the cracks and now, the news about it is all over the place.īut one thing that keeps bothering me is if the move was meant to be intentional or not. In a company like H&M, there is a chain of command, clothing designs do pass through lots of screening and personnel as well. There has been lots of outrage as a result of this “ad” from lots of people around the world mostly pointing at H&M’s insensitivity to a long standing societal problem one that has been a point of discourse for decades now. Well, we all know how that turned out to be for her and the same thing can be said of the young boy in the H&M hoodie ad. She was hoping to remind the world that she and every other woman of color are perfect just the way they are. She has always been aware of this repressive narrative and the very reason why she decided to be a part of the campaign. She said that being a part of a group of people (dark-skinned), the society over time has suggested about how better they would look if they were lighter. Remember the “racist Dove ad”, the woman in question, Lola Ogunyemi a Nigerian who was born in London and raised in Atlanta. What pains me the most is the simple but unchanging fact that few months from now, another corporate entity will do this same thing and we will have to discuss this all over again.Īs much as this seems to be a perfect example of corporate negligence on their part, I couldn’t help but kept pondering if the move was meant to be an intentional one or just a simple mistake like they mentioned in their apology. But most times, these companies don’t really need the attention they garner for themselves through unethical advertising.īoasting of a significant online presence, H&M ought to have understood the severity of such act to begin with, but like every other racist ad that had been seen in the past, we have always been made to believe all to be mistakes by the companies involved even though majority of the people think it to be otherwise. This is not a case of misinterpretation of advertisement by the people or their audience, rather it is more of an intentional act for the purpose of product or corporate awareness. This racial stereotyping in advertising has become a norm amongst corporate entities and nothing has been done to curb this malicious marketing strategy they tend to make use of.
#RACIST H AND M AD PROFESSIONAL#
Sounds cool isn’t it? Not exactly, especially when this same merchandise was worn by a young black model who probably had no idea what he was doing at the time other than posing in front of a professional photographer and yes, he will get paid.