The Washington Post summarized the latest "inclusion" and "diversity" controversy in the fashion world: "Shea Moisture reaches out to white women in hair products ad. Black women protest."
Shea Moisture, a company that has been meeting the needs of women of color in the areas of skin and hair care, is coming under fire from their own target audience because of a recent Facebook ad that spread a message of inclusion to include women of all ethnic backgrounds. Apparently, their loyal customer base feel this message of inclusiveness somehow feels this means the company would be abandoning them.
The Facebook ad that created the backlash features a black woman talking about the challenges of her hair then turns to a straight-haired blond woman who complains she doesn’t know what to do with her hair, while another white woman with flat red hair says she feels “pressured” to change her hair color to blond.
Many took to social media to blast the company. One writer expressed the ad a “blatant erasure of African American women who made the brand what it is,” while another said the ad completely discredited the needs of women of color much like the slogan “All Lives Matter,” and the #allhairmatters hashtag popped up in protest. One even went as far to say that the ad was a further “hijacking” of their culture by white women.
Feeling pressured from the backlash, Sundial Brands, which owns Shea Moisture, issued a statement about now disrespecting the "hair journey" of their customers:
“So, the feedback we are seeing here brings to light a very important point,” it went on. “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 different — and we should know better….”
The CEO of Sundial Brands, Richelieu Dennis, told the Post that the ad completely missed the mark:
“Their sentiment — of wanting to make sure that the brand is no longer focused on them and is leaving them behind — is simply not correct and accurate,” Dennis said. “We continue to stand for women of color. We continue to service them. We are not changing anything. We’re overwhelmingly innovating for them.”
Although many took to social media to voice their displeasure, others said it was an overreaction to the company’s effort to expand its customer base into different areas.
SheaMoisture has since pulled the commercial and issued an apology, saying: “Wow – we really f—ed this one up! Please know that our intent was not, & would never be, to disrespect our community.”
