Image by H&M via The Guardian
Another offensive ad, not so surprising is it? As we are approaching a new year in a couple of months let’s just say we had an interesting start for 2018. On January 7th a picture of a young boy modeling a particular hoodie went viral. A Twitter user by the name of @CharlesMBlow noticed the ad on the H&M website and decided to call them out. After he sent his tweet more people went to the website and saw the very offensive and poorly thought out ad which was featured on the company’s UK website. After all the tweets and Instagram posts about the picture, people began to boycott the brand. The singer The Weeknd and rapper G-Eazy who worked with the company decided to end their partnership with them while others celebrities like Lebron James and Diddy also spoke up about it.
Now let’s talk about Why it’s offensive. The phrase on the 5-year-old Liam Mongo’s hoodie says, “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle”. Time and time again a Black person is called a monkey. The word monkey has been used for years to put down and belittle Black people. Comparing black people to apes goes back to years of slavery. Slaves were often dehumanized by their masters to justify their actions and were treated like animals. The phrase itself isn’t racist but getting the Black boy to represent that phrase is. The question that everyone is asking is “why was he the one chosen to wear it ?”, while the other young model of a different race was chosen to wear a different one. If the other model would have worn it, it would not have been offensive. There is clearly a negative connotation associated with that word when it is used in relation to Black people. Why did it have to be a monkey? Why not any other animals in the jungle? In my opinion, it was definitely a conscious decision.
The ad takes away from the actual purpose of it, which is persuading people to buy the item. This does the exact opposite. Instead of looking at the item and thinking “maybe I should buy this”, it makes people not want to support the company at all. It also singles out a group of people. When doing things and especially having a company, you have to think about everyone and how certain things can affect them. As an African American, I was definitely offended and very disappointed. H&M was actually one of my favorite places to shop because of their cute styles and affordability, but after this happened it definitely made me reconsider. Oddly enough, I’d just bought a sweatshirt I really liked from them a week or two before this happened and I definitely thought about returning it.
Ads are supposed to appeal to the consumer’s emotions but instead, this ad made them feel disrespected. When I saw the picture it made me mad, upset and confused. I was mad because it was very disrespectful and it made see that that’s the way they view Black people. I was upset because this was a company that I liked and have shopped there a lot. I was very confused on how this got approved by their marketing team. Even though this isn’t H&M’s first controversy this one has caused a lot of problems and even riots.
On the other hand, in response to the negative emotions caused by the ad, people decided to turn the picture into something positive and make the hoodie the way they thought it should be. They made a hoodie that represented the way we view the little boy instead of the way H&M viewed the boy. We saw him as a handsome young king.
Image via The Source
I really liked what you had to say about this ad; it’s honestly horrifying how such hateful sentiments exist even to this day, disguised in ads such as these. Ads are meant to sell products… if they manage to actively anger their target audiences, then they have failed in their primary role. Also, I liked your inclusion of the way people turned the ad around to showcase a more positive message.