This week has been filled with questionable ads and its just Wednesday. First Pepsi landed in hot water after its recent commercial controversy and now Nivea is following suit.
Last week the deodorant ad was posted to FaceBook with intentions to target the German companies consumers in the “Middle East”. The ad features a woman’s back with long brown hair in white sitting on a bed. The bottom of the ad reads “WHITE IS PURITY”. Yep, you read that right. The ad was also captioned with “Keep it clean, keep bright. Don’t let anything ruin it”. #Invisible
Nivea's now deleted facebook post was quite popular with the alt right last night pic.twitter.com/BnT148kOcj
— Benjamin Young Savage (ᐱᓐᒋᐱᓐ) (@benjancewicz) April 4, 2017
Not only did the ad receive tons of scrutiny, it also garnered attention from what appears to be a white supremacy group. The Daily Mail caught the image before the ad was deleted. Facebook user, Political Memes With an Edgy Theme wrote, “We enthusiastically support this new direction your company is taking. I’m glad we can all agree that #WhiteIsPurity.”
The interwebs went CRAZY. Many people took to their Instagrams, Facebook accounts and Twitter to express their feelings of disgust.
@NIVEAUSA You're awfully quiet about your #WhiteIsPurity blunder.
— juniper breeze butthole (@nipplefarmer) April 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/Bleuette_/status/849630279039934464
I question whether any thought was even put into this advert…Well done Nivea -_- #Nivea #Whiteispurity #niveaad #advertising pic.twitter.com/K6nVSKAGSo
— Elena (@groovyelena) April 5, 2017
Since then, In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokeswoman for Nivea’s parent company, Beiersdorf Global AG, apologized for the post.
“That image was inappropriate and not reflective of our values as a company. We deeply apologize for that and have removed the post,” the statement read. “Diversity and inclusivity are crucial values of NIVEA. We take pride in creating products that promote beauty in all forms. Discrimination of any kind is simply not acceptable to us as a company, as employees, or as individuals.” Still, makes you wonder about the diversity of the team who approved this campaign.
With the racial tensions being what they are in this country we look forward to a time of fewer apologies and more pro-active planning!