Watch Your Mouth

Today more than ever, people are more cautious about what they say because they aren’t sure who they may offend. People definitely have to be careful about what they say, but even more so, businesses have to walk on eggshells because their reputations are always on the line, constantly on display to the public.

With the capabilities of social media these days, a brand can be ruined simply by one post being taken the wrong way.

When it comes to racism, most people are pretty aware of what is the right thing to say and what is wrong. In 2017, it did not seem like the brand Nivea knew the difference when displaying this ad on Facebook:

As I am sure you can imagine, this ad, which was originally directed towards the brand’s followers in the Middle East, immediately led to comments regarding racism and white supremacy.

Racism has been a sensitive topic for many years, and when creating this ad, it did not seem like the brand put in any effort whatsoever towards research into how this ad would be perceived.

Again, I am sure you are thinking, “Yeah, how the heck could they release this ad?!”

While Nivea did handle this crisis well by removing the ad immediately and publicly apologizing to the public and specific followers:

this whole crisis could easily have been avoided had they received some outside opinions from people of different races. Having some diversified opinions on a project like this one could have only helped Nivea from being perceived as racist and insensitive. The saying, “think before you speak”, applies perfectly in this situation for Nivea. Today, brands have to think before they speak when it comes to creating ads for the public. If the brand actually did their research in order to develop this ad, then it would not have come across as so hurtful.