H&M have been slammed after one of their models, a young black child, was seen wearing a controversial top on the website
Clothing brand H&M have come under fire and been branded "racist" after advertising one of their children's jumpers.
In the photo, a young black boy is modelling a jumper which reads 'Coolest Monkey In The Jungle'. However lots of people have taken to Twitter to slam the company after many pointed out that 'monkey' has been used as a racist insult to black people.
One person took to Twitter and wrote: "@hm, have you lost your damned minds?!?!?!"
Someone else said: "Dear @hm are serious?!?!? Who’s bright idea was this??? How insensitive and racist!!! Do something!!!!!!"
A third commented: "This is EXTREMELY racist! @hm won’t get another dime of my hard earned money!"
Another argued: "People are totally not getting the point about H&M racist ad. It’s not about how kids get called monkeys. It’s the meaning of the word monkey to black people, it’s been used to insult blacks for years. And choosing to put the hoodie on him is insensitive and racist. @hm"
One more added: "Companies like @HM @Dove and @Pepsi know EXACTLY what they’re doing when they make these racist ads OR their companies lack ethnic diversity in upper levels of their marketing. As much scrutiny goes into what is said & seen when making ads NOTHING goes out w/o several approvals."
There were some people who defended the company, one person tweeted: "I don't think H&M is racist. People are claiming to be offended when there is nothing to be offended for. It's just the word monkey. It wasn't stereotyping the young boy. It's just a sweater. Stop getting offended over everything. @hm"
Someone else wrote: "This H&M thing is a joke, if you think it’s racist then you are racist. No one insinuated the little boy was a monkey because of his skin colour. It’s a known thing that kids are called “little monkeys” etc- playgroups l over UK are called cheeky monkeys etc"
One more added: "That H&M hoodie in and of itself is not racist nor offensive. However putting it on and marketing it with a black child with historical and current context is just not a good look."
Following the backlash, H&M have removed the photo from their website and have released an apology. A spokeswoman for the company said: "This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended."
This isn't the first time a brand has come under fire, in the past Gap has been branded racist following one of their advertising campaigns, Clarks were accused of sexism over 'inferior' range of girls' school shoes and TK Maxx have been slammed for their sexist baby bibs.
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