Shea Moisture is a hair care company with almost 80% black clients. Two days ago, the company released a new ad campaign which featured mostly mixed and white women and the Internet went wild. It is ‘Hurtful’, said, black Women.
Customers felt that the company was sidelining its core customer base in an effort to include white women. Most women of colour claimed on social media that the product isn’t working for them anymore and guessed something has changed. They also felt disappointed with the root the company taking.
Shea Moisture just apologised for releasing the ‘hurtful’ commercial that features a majority of white women. They admitted they got it wrong 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:
Here is a statement they posted on Instagram
“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”
The Video below
