Clicks should know better than to show an insensitive advert
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The potential strength of consumer activism spoke loud and clear in the 6% drop in the Clicks share price in the wake of the insulting hair products advert it posted on its website last week.
It sends a clear message to corporations: sensitivity to your customers is key to your reputation, which is key to your sustainability.
Clicks evoked widespread fury by showing an advertisement on its website for TRESemmé hair products, with pictures that described the hair of a black model as “dry and damaged” and “frizzy and dull”, contrasting with blonde Caucasian hair that was “fine and flat” and “normal”.
Clicks is not the first or only consumer brand culprit to violate the dignity of its black customers, but it should have learnt from previous debacles.
In October 2017 Dove, manufacturer of personal care products, also aroused social media outrage when it flighted an advert showing a black woman turning white after using its soap. In early 2018, Swedish clothing retailer H&M caused an outcry with a photograph of a black man modelling a hoodie with the logo “coolest monkey in the jungle”. Soon afterwards, luxury brand Gucci had to apologise after an advert showed a woman wearing a black polo neck/balaclava combo with a cut-out of red lips, which was labelled “blackface”.
One commentator told Gucci: “If you hire more black people and cultivate an environment where people on all levels of the company feel comfortable to speak up, incidents like this will be avoided.”
Clicks Group CEO Vikesh Ramsunder has made an abject apology, acknowledging the images were “insensitive and offensive”. He says the negligent employees have been suspended and the group will be intensifying its diversity and inclusion training. However, the EFF says it intends continuing its demonstrations against Clicks stores this week.
Though I do not condone the EFF’s approach, I have little sympathy for Clicks or TRESemmé (who supplied the images). Had they ensured that the staff responsible for advertising — whether agency or in-house — was racially diversified, they would never have come up with those labels.
All too often, advertising agencies are more concerned with ensuring pictures and taglines are attention-grabbing and fail to see the message behind those images. They are influential. Many consumers can remember a punchy tagline or meme, even after the name of the product is forgotten.
Suspending or sacking an agency, or a couple of junior ...
It sends a clear message to corporations: sensitivity to your customers is key to your reputation, which is key to your sustainability.
Clicks evoked widespread fury by showing an advertisement on its website for TRESemmé hair products, with pictures that described the hair of a black model as “dry and damaged” and “frizzy and dull”, contrasting with blonde Caucasian hair that was “fine and flat” and “normal”.
Clicks is not the first or only consumer brand culprit to violate the dignity of its black customers, but it should have learnt from previous debacles.
In October 2017 Dove, manufacturer of personal care products, also aroused social media outrage when it flighted an advert showing a black woman turning white after using its soap. In early 2018, Swedish clothing retailer H&M caused an outcry with a photograph of a black man modelling a hoodie with the logo “coolest monkey in the jungle”. Soon afterwards, luxury brand Gucci had to apologise after an advert showed a woman wearing a black polo neck/balaclava combo with a cut-out of red lips, which was labelled “blackface”.
One commentator told Gucci: “If you hire more black people and cultivate an environment where people on all levels of the company feel comfortable to speak up, incidents like this will be avoided.”
Clicks Group CEO Vikesh Ramsunder has made an abject apology, acknowledging the images were “insensitive and offensive”. He says the negligent employees have been suspended and the group will be intensifying its diversity and inclusion training. However, the EFF says it intends continuing its demonstrations against Clicks stores this week.
Though I do not condone the EFF’s approach, I have little sympathy for Clicks or TRESemmé (who supplied the images). Had they ensured that the staff responsible for advertising — whether agency or in-house — was racially diversified, they would never have come up with those labels.
All too often, advertising agencies are more concerned with ensuring pictures and taglines are attention-grabbing and fail to see the message behind those images. They are influential. Many consumers can remember a punchy tagline or meme, even after the name of the product is forgotten.
Suspending or sacking an agency, or a couple of junior ...