Akutukanae hakuchagulii Tusi!!

Spear · 2011-05-25T22:10:39+00:00

Last updated at 4:08 PM on 25th May 2011 Soap giant Dove has landed itself in hot water after an advert for one of its products appeared to suggest it can change a user's skin colour. The promotion, for Dove VisibleCare Creme Body Wash - a £2.69 product that is available in Boots - features a 'before' and 'after' skin chart behind a black woman, possibly a Latina and a blonde - all wrapped in towels - standing beside each other. The caption reads: 'Visibly more beautiful skin from the most unexpected of places - your shower.' But critics are in a lather over the ad, accusing Dove of implied - and albeit unintentional - racism. Racist? The ad features a 'before' and 'after' skin chart behind a black woman, a possible Latina and a blonde - all wrapped in towels - standing beside each other Under the headline 'Dove body wash turns black women into Latino women, into white women', one blogger wrote: 'At least, that's what one could possibly infer by the left-to-right before and after progression in this ad for Dove VisibleCare. 'This is so stupid, I'm thinking it's got to be a fake Photoshop ad. But it doesn't look like it.' Soapy: The Dove VisibleCare Creme Body Wash Another wrote: 'Bye-bye black skin, hello white skin! (Scrub hard!) Can this ad possibly be real? 'Some people think it is! If real, this could be the most unintentionally(?) racist skin care product ad in... about ten months.' Dove confirmed that the advert was genuine, adding: 'The ad is intended to illustrate the benefits of using Dove VisibleCare Body Wash, by making skin visibly more beautiful in just one week. 'All three women are intended to demonstrate the "after" product benefit. We do not condone any activity or imagery that intentionally insults any audience.' It's not the first time Dove's practices have been questioned. Last summer, the beauty giant issued a casting notice for models for its 'Real Beauty' campaign. In the call out, it asked for 'well groomed and clean [women]... with nice bodies', who were 'naturally fit, not too curvy, not too athletic'. But Dove immediately distanced itself from the slur, telling the Huffington Post in a statement that it 'was not approved by the brand or agency team and did not reflect the spirit of the brand team's vision'. It added: 'We believe our images demonstrate that real beauty comes in many shapes, sizes, colors and ages and we remain committed to featuring realistic and attainable images of beauty in all our advertising.' In 2008 the firm - owned by Unilever - was targeted by campaigners who claim its production is reliant on the destruction of Orang-utan forests. Images of injured, dead and dying orang-utans were released by Greenpeace in a campaign against the clearing of rainforests in Indonesia. Some 40 Greenpeace volunteers, dressed in orang-utan suits, targeted a Unilever factory at Port Sunlight near Liverpool, occupying the building and overrunning production lines. Protest: In 2008, Some 40 Greenpeace volunteers, dressed in orang-utan suits, targeted a Unilever factory claiming its production is reliant on the destruction of Orang-utan forests It was claimed that suppliers to Unilever were felling vast tracts of trees and burning the undergrowth to clear land for the planting of palm oil trees. The oil, which is high in saturated fat, is used in hundreds of household products, including soap, as well as thousands of food products. Unilever alone uses 800,000 tonnes for food products, such as Flora margarine, and 500,000 tonnes for soap and cosmetics.

Thread starter Spear
Start date May 26, 2011

Spear

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Akutukanae hakuchagulii Tusi!!

Spear

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