When it comes to spotting mistakes made by brands – or anyone for that fact – nobody is safe from the all-seeing eyes of Twitter. Remember the Zara children’s shirt that looked like a ‘concentration camp’ uniform? Well, along the same lines, H&M has come under fire for an image that is being branded as racist.
While the jumper itself is innocent enough – emblazoned with ‘Coolest Monkey in the Jungle’ – it was the picture on the website that people took offence to, featuring the hoodie on a black child. While there were white kids in jumpers that read ‘Survival Expert’ and ‘Awesome’ – neither with negative connotations – Twitter was baffled how something like that could have been overlooked.
Unsurprisingly, outrage followed with people angrily tweeting the high street chain. New York Times columnist Charles Blow said “@hm, have you lost your damned minds?!?!?!” while others were confused as to how the image was presumably approved by a whole chain of people without being flagged.
H&M released a statement apologising for the image – which has now been removed from its website – but the jumper is still for sale.
Update: The Weeknd – who last year teamed up with H&M on two capsule collections – has announced he will no longer work with the retailer. “woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore...” (sic) he tweeted.
