A South Korean women’s clothing brand has been forced to apologize after being publicly accused of darkening the palm of what’s supposed to be Black person’s hand in advertisements for its nail polish collection, BuzzFeed News reported Saturday, July 21.
The photos, which come from the makeup line 3CE, have spread online. Many have pointed out that the hand was likely a pale one that was simply edited to appear as if it belonged to a Black woman.
“What in tarnation 👀.”
“Stylenanda should’ve just left the 2nd hand off with that post. That piss poor attempt in adding ‘diversity’ was s—.”
“Why not just hire a Black model, instead of painting a white woman’s hand black? #StyleNanda.”
“Did you really just spray tan ‘brown skin’ on someone 🤦🏾♀️.”
The company has since issued an apology saying, “We are sincerely sorry for the upset caused. We have since removed the picture and will no longer be using it to illustrate our products.”
Even still, consumers were left dissatisfied and they urged the brand to actually hire Black models next time around.
“Other than hiring a Black model, you could’ve just looked up how Black people’s hands look like 😕😂🙈. Since when is the palm the same color as the rest of the hand?? I know the matter is settled and you apologized, but save yourself from making mistakes in the future and just hire a Black model😂😅”
“Please hire some Black models in the future 🙏🏽. Instead of doing a MAJOR mistake like the deleted post 🤦🏿♀️.”
“GUYS IT’S NOT DIFFICULT … JUST HIRE A BLACK MODEL!!!!”
“100% forgiven, but please just hire a Black model, it’s not hard. Thanks for noticing your mistake and fixing it 💗.”
This isn’t the first time a South Korea has been called out for a racist advertisement. In 2013, tobacco firm KT&G was under fire for ads for its “This Africa” brand of cigarettes which featured monkies. KT&G ultimately pulled the ad.
