With a Black Customer Base, Did Shea Moisture Need to Apologise for Featuring Mostly White Women in an Ad?

Shea Moisture is a hair care company with a black clientele base. Two days ago, the company released an ad that features mostly white women and the Internet was not having the betrayal. The internet felt that the company was sidelining its core customer base in an effort to include white women.

When I get home all of my #sheamoisture products are going in the trash. Y’all are gonna learn the value of the black womans dollar today

— Shiann (@shimizzle) April 24, 2017

THIS is the underlying issue. It was never just about the #SheaMoisture ad. The ad was a REFLECTION that #BlackWomen were NOT at the table. https://t.co/IyQijrPMTQ

— Angela Angel (@MDAdvocateAngel) April 25, 2017

The fact that yall care more about “representation” than ownership is why you will die broke and disenfranchised #sheamoisture

— Doc Ock (@OckyJ83) April 24, 2017

Shea Moisture has apologised for releasing the ‘hurtful’ commercial that features a majority of white women. They admitted they had ‘f***** up’ with the advert, which shows three white women and one black woman talking about ‘hair hate’ while promoting sale products. They said in an Instagram statement:

Wow, okay – so guys, listen, we really f-ed this one up. Please know that our intention was not – and would never be – to disrespect our community, and as such, we are pulling this piece immediately because it does not represent what we intended to communicate. You guys know that we have always stood for inclusion in beauty and have always fought for our community and given them credit for not just building our business but for shifting the beauty landscape. So, the feedback we are seeing here brings to light a very important point. While this campaign included several different videos showing different ethnicities and hair types to demonstrate the breadth and depth of each individual’s hair journey, we must absolutely ensure moving forward that our community is well-represented in each one so that the women who have led this movement never feel that their hair journey is minimized in any way. We are keenly aware of the journey that WOC face – and our work will continue to serve as the inspiration for work like the Perception Institute’s Good Hair Study/Implicit Association Test that suggests that a majority of people, regardless of race and gender, hold some bias towards women of color based on their textured or natural hair. So, you’re right. We are different – and we should know better.
Thank you all, as always, for the honest and candid feedback. We hear you. We’re listening. We appreciate you. We count on you. And we’re always here for you. Thank you, #SheaFam, for being there for us, even when we make mistakes. Here’s to growing and building together…

Wow, okay – so guys, listen, we really f-ed this one up. Please know that our intention was not – and would never be – to disrespect our community, and as such, we are pulling this piece immediately because it does not represent what we intended to communicate. You guys know that we have always stood for inclusion in beauty and have always fought for our community and given them credit for not just building our business but for shifting the beauty landscape. So, the feedback we are seeing here brings to light a very important point. While this campaign included several different videos showing different ethnicities and hair types to demonstrate the breadth and depth of each individual’s hair journey, we must absolutely ensure moving forward that our community is well-represented in each one so that the women who have led this movement never feel that their hair journey is minimized in any way. We are keenly aware of the journey that WOC face – and our work will continue to serve as the inspiration for work like the Perception Institute’s Good Hair Study/Implicit Association Test that suggests that a majority of people, regardless of race and gender, hold some bias towards women of color based on their textured or natural hair. So, you’re right. We are different – and we should know better. Thank you all, as always, for the honest and candid feedback. We hear you. We’re listening. We appreciate you. We count on you. And we’re always here for you. Thank you, #SheaFam, for being there for us, even when we make mistakes. Here’s to growing and building together…

A post shared by SheaMoisture (@sheamoisture) on Apr 24, 2017 at 2:11pm PDT

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The Ad has been pulled down. Do you think Shea Moisture needed to apologise for their Ad?