Lately there has been a rise in companies being blatantly racist. Have we not noticed this before, or is this just a way to get us to pay attention to the product they’re putting out?
We saw with the recent H&M ad where a young black model was wearing a “coolest monkey in the jungle” hoodie. There was outrage on all social media outlets. People were calling out H&M for being racist, saying that they obviously knew they would receive backlash for it. By doing this they got people talking about their product, they were a trending topic on twitter, and as a result, they had a 80 percent off sale to make up for it. Even after this, people still bought their products, and they still made a profit.
Then not shortly after, we saw a big name brand makeup company release a new line of foundation, but they only included 3 shades that majority of black women would even be able to wear. They produced 15 shades and a different finish for each. As soon as the line dropped, they received backlash. Did they not think “oh black women buy our products too?” or not even bother to be all inclusive? They put out the pastiest mayonnaise shades and threw in a few darker shades like “here you go” in order to show that they’re “diverse.”
After the backlash, they announced they would be releasing more shades. They got people talking about their products all over YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Big name makeup gurus on YouTube were giving product reviews. Two very known YouTubers, Jackie Aina and Alissa Ashley, made a video and were in complete disgust at the lack of shades for black women. They were at a lost for words. Tarte knew what they were doing. They put out a product, got the big name makeup YouTubers talking about their product, gain attention, trend on Twitter and ultimately still make sales. All publicity is good publicity, because they will always flip it around. Turn sour lemons to sweet lemonade, or something like that.
It is all a part of the new marketing ploy: piss off black people, get them talking, promise to fix it and still gain sales. At the end of the day, these brands have money in their pocket. The new marketing ploy is clever, because they know how powerful the black dollar is and how most black people will react to brands not being inclusive or just being blatantly racist. I commend the big name brands. You almost had me.
