Will Nivea ever learn from their previous mistakes? Back in April, the skincare company released an ad declaring that "White is Purity" and of course, the campaign was pulled after people did the job of their marketing department and pointed out that singling out white people and referring to them as the embodiment of purity is not how you want to treat any possible customers who happen to be people of color.
Nivea recently released a new campaign for "Natural Fairness Body Lotion," which already sounds like a problematic product. But then, they dropped the commercial and it just made everything so much worse. As a black woman looks disappointedly at her skin, a voiceover can be heard saying, "I need a product that I can really trust to restore my skin’s natural fairness." Once the woman applies the lotion, her skin immediately begins to lighten. "Now, I have visibly fairer skin, making me feel younger," the voice said.
This latest tone deaf ad, courtesy of Nivea, comes less than two weeks after Dove pulled a campaign of their own, showing a black woman turning into a white woman. Dove apologized for the ad, claiming they "missed the mark in representing woman of color thoughtfully."
Instead of imploring women of color to seek out this idea of "visibly lighten skin," why not encourage them to celebrate who they are and how they look, regardless of skin tone? It shouldn't be this difficult for these skincare companies to come to this conclusion.
