H&M Apologises for Racist “Coolest Monkey” Hoodie Ad

HM said removed the racist advertisement and apologized “to anyone this may have offended.”

The advertisement featured a photo of a black boy in a green hoodie that had “Coolest monkey in the jungle” written on it.

(Photo: H&M website screenshot)

Clothing brand H&M apologised for their advertisement featuring a photo of a black boy in a green hoodie that had “Coolest monkey in the jungle” written on it.

After facing huge flak on social media for their marketing disaster, the fashion brand issued a statement that said, "We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print”. The statement added that not only the advertising but the garment is also being removed from the product offering. It said the company will look into its internal practices to avoid such a blunder in future.

New York Times columnist Charles M Blow reportedly spotted the ad and flagged it on Twitter triggering outrage against H&M.

A Twitter user responded to Blow’s tweet and said, “The head office in Sweden is very disconnected to issues of racism, cultural and social challenges.”

UK Labour Party lawmaker Kate Osamor tweeted that she was "totally shocked, dismayed to say the very least" by the image and, addressing H&M, asked "do you think this imagery is an appropriate representation of a young black boy?"

The brand removed the image, but kept in place other designs modelled by white children.

The retailer on Monday, 8 January, said that the “image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we sincerely apologise to anyone this may have offended.”

But that apology wasn’t enough to hold back the barrage of criticism it faced from celebrities and other people alike.

Popular musician The Weeknd said he was “deeply offended” and that he won’t work with the Swedish fashion brand.

A Twitter user said that the entire advertisement series narrated a racist plot where the white child model symbolised the jungle survivor as his hoodie said, “Mangrove jungle survivor expert” while the black model stood for the animal.

Recently, in 2017, another cosmetics company Dove faced backlash over an advertisement that purportedly shows an African American model changing to a white model after using their product.

That ad also drew similar flak from netizens calling the sequence racist.

(With inputs from AP.)

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