Shea Moisture Pulls White Washed Ad Proving Black UNITY Can Make Change Their Open Letter

POWER IN UNITY

Shea Moisture recently released an ad campaign that was supposed to show diversity, but showed yet another white washed ad that neglected it’s POC supportive base. Although Shea Moisture is not a “Black Product” their number one consumer, and the top consumer overall on beauty products are POC.

The ad featured stories from non-Afrikan people. These campaigns have been slowly being revealed for weeks. Afrikan supporters in America were not happy about the neglect and complained in large numbers. Because of the latter Shea Moisture issued an apology, an open letter, and promised to take the ad down.

Shea Moisture Complaints, & Open Letter:

Shea Moisture’s Open Letter:

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…

Will This Apology Be Enough? Or Do We Continue To STICK Together On Many Different Issues And DEMAND Change? We are the majority spenders on Earth and if we stick together we can affect greater change, even greater than this!

– Thanks For Reading #SOULdiers