Should they research every local culture for a cute hoodie? Where does it stop? If a foreigner is oblivious to something of your culture (and again, I wouldn't have seen the racist connotation had it not been pointed out), you should just say 'hey, you may want to change that here'. The ad was from an international campaign by a Swedish brand. Furthermore, that connotation is American. But it shouldn't be taken to an extreme, because there would never be an end to what connotation any person feels from every word. But I also understand that it's not often that easy: if a black guy has had bad experiences being called monkey, you may want to avoid using that term. Me refraining from calling my nephew a monkey would be their victory. In fact, I believe they want to associate a racist connotation, and they succeed when we recognise it. Racists call black people monkeys, so they associate a racist connotation to the term. Nothing of that appears in the ad, and I believe there was no intentional racism in the ad unless proven otherwise.Ĭonnotation. Racism is defined as the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity. I think there are two things at stake here: I could have call my black nephew a monkey and it wouldn't have crossed my mind that it had racist connotations. Then I saw that it seemed to be a big thing in the US. I saw it in the news (not from the US), and not many people outside the regulars to this stuff paid attention. Sheesh, it’s looking slow for H&M! If you’re interested in posting, peep H&M’s Facebook community here and get your two cents in.This week's controversy is H&M ad where a black kid is wearing a shirt that says 'The coolest monkey in the jungle'. “They removed the picture but are still selling the item.
#Racist h and m ad cracker#
The roasting kept going as the feed also included a white boy wearing an orange hoodie with a Ritz Cracker box photoshopped on the front.īefore finally realizing that I couldn’t read anymore the last post I read was, Nor, am I offended by this due to sheer stupidity with comedy as to how and the heck would anyone not think that this comes across as racist?! Way to go H&M cause whomever in charge should probably be fired.” “We live in a world where so many people get offended and normally I don’t get offended. One person out of Philly said simply, “Fkn disgrace!” As we scrolled through the flames there were a couple of posts that caught my eye. The fact that they won’t pull the hoodie off the site after an embarrassing and offensive mistake like this shows how much H&M really doesn’t really get it.Īnd trust, because of this, H&M’s Facebook page is under the volcano. What he and other consumers didn’t predict is that in lieu of the apology, H&M still hasn’t pulled the actual hoodie from the site. “We sincerely apologize for offending people with this image of a printed hooded top… 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.” On IG, he posted the same racist product ad and wrote about the many apologies that will inevitably come from the retail brand, the grand gesture of donating to a charity after something like this happens, and speculated that H&M’s boardroom is probably missing Black voices. Roots drummer Questlove also weighed in on the stupidest marketing move of all time. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with anymore… /P3023iYzAb Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. Upon waking up this morning, The Weeknd felt “shocked and embarrassed” by H&M’s photo. The ad showed a cute Black boy sporting a forest green hoodie, with the words “coolest monkey in the jungle,” printed in all caps on the front. H&M retail consumers have also expressed their anger with many vowing to stop shopping at its stores after a racist product ad surfaced on their UK site. So much so that even The Weeknd, who started modeling for the global brand last year, has severed all ties with them according to TMZ. H&M just became the lamest retailer brand in the culture jungle.