H&M Racial Ad: Intentional or Unintentional
Just recently on its US online store, H&M; the fashion house whose sales has been on a decline for the first time in decades posted a new merchandise up for sale. It was a green hoodie with the words “COOLEST MONKEY IN THE JUNGLE”.
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.
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. 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. But most times, these companies don’t really need the attention they garner for themselves through unethical advertising.
Boasting 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. 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.
As 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. Remember the “racist Dove ad”, the woman in question, Lola Ogunyemi; a Nigerian who was born in London and raised in Atlanta. 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.
She has always been aware of this repressive narrative and the very reason why she decided to be a part of the campaign. She was hoping to remind the world that she and every other woman of color are perfect just the way they are. 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.
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. In a company like H&M, there is a chain of command, clothing designs do pass through lots of screening and personnel as well. But somehow, this particular design was able to slip through the cracks and now, the news about it is all over the place.
But one thing that keeps bothering me is if the move was meant to be intentional or not. The first thing that comes to mind is “what exactly were they thinking to come up with such an ad”. 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.
In a very sensitive society where everything said or done are continually measured by the impact it has on the society itself. 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. 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. He went ahead and tweeted
woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. I’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore….
Also, G-Easy, the Californian rapper whose real name is Gerald Earl Gillum ended his partnership with the Swedish company saying
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. Whether an oblivious oversight or not, it’s truly sad and disturbing that in 2018, something so racially and culturally insensitive could pass by the eyes of so many (stylist,photographer, creative and marketing teams) and be deemed acceptable. I can’t allow for my name and brand to be associated with a company that could let this happen. I hope the situation will serve as the wakeup call that H&M and other companies need to get on track and become racially and culturally aware, as well as more diverse at every level”.
Sean Diddy Combs with a “new” version of the photo courtesy of Akomiscart with the words “COOLEST KID IN THE WORLD”
also tweeted “Put some respect on it!!” When you look at us make sure you see royalty and super natural God sent glory!! Anything else is disrespectful.
Conclusion
One could argue this move both ways but in a society where things like this could be termed “a recipe for disaster”, H&M somehow managed to let it out for the public to deal with. And the public is doing a pretty good job on this one, one that H&M might not like the eventual outcome. Increased social media awareness and engagement on this ad might see to a further decline in their sales and that’s something they ought to avoid by every means possible. However, the deed is done and H&M will have to face the music on this one.
