GAP gets Backlash for “Racially Insensitive” Ad with Black Girl | Mother says Everyone Needs to Calm Down

A group of young girls, Ava, 8, Lucy, 8, Fanny, 12, and Angelina, 12—known collectively as Le Petit Cirque, “the only all-kid humanitarian cirque company in the world”— are the new faces of Gap’s GapKids x ED lifestyle brand which retails comfortable cottonwear for active girls.

Gap released the new ads for the brand featuring the four girls as well as a video clip featuring Ellen Degeneres but these promotional materials have caused so much backlash on social media with a lot of people calling out Gap for being “racially insensitive”.

According to several Twitter users, the fact that one of the white children in the image is resting her arm on the head of the only black child featured is “unempowering” and goes against the idea of the campaign which is that all girls can do anything.

See some tweets below.

The mother of the girl has however come forward to reveal that the white girl resting on the black girl is actually her adoptive sister. She also revealed that the reason why the black girl was the only one not to speak in the video is because she is extremely shy.

Gap has also come forward with an apology as well as changed the primary image for their promotions.

Their apology reads:

As a brand with a proud 46-year history of championing diversity and inclusivity, we appreciate the conversation that has taken place and are sorry to anyone we’ve offended. This GapKids campaign highlights true stories of talented girls who are celebrating creative self-expression and sharing their messages of empowerment. We are replacing the image with a different shot from the campaign, which encourages girls (and boys) everywhere to be themselves and feel pride in what makes them unique

Do you think people are right that Gap was being racially insensitive or are people too sensitive these days?