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Can one H&M MONKEY cause that much damage?

  • Writer: anita
    anita
  • Nov 11, 2018
  • 3 min read


(The New York Times, 2018)


You must have heard about H&M “coolest monkey in a jungle” scandal. Everyone has. And I’m just wondering whether it’s good or bad. Don’t get me wrong, I can admit that this kind of message is misguided and should have been thought deeply, but on the other hand, it’s just an advert. Well, opinions differ. Let’s consider a few points of view of this topic.


Just think about black people and how they STILL feel discriminated. Even though, it’s 2018 and we should all be beyond racist and prejudices, we’re not. Personally, as a part of a minority in UK, I sometimes feel a little bit DIFFERENT. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, as it’s obvious that I will never be an English person and it doesn’t bother me at all. But, to tell you the truth, there are still some kind of prejudices and stereotypes and people see us through them. Some of them are positive, some are negative, there’s no rule. Although, it’s not a big issue for me, I’m just saying that sometimes I can feel it, so I can totally understand opinions of black people to this advert, when they felt that it was just not right. When people see me at the street, they can’t tell straightaway that I’m not English. When many people see a black person, they just see a black person, which is just WRONG. And I think, that’s the reason people felt so offended by this image. Interesting is, that not only black people were against this advert which brings hope, right? Racist is still a big issue in many countries if not in all of them. It all depends on people. We don’t even have to look that far. Just think about subcultures and how people stare at person who looks unique? We all can relate to this either by being judged or by judging others in some kind of way.


Do YOU think this advert was INAPPROPRIATE?


On the other hand, why are we so sensitive when it comes to these subjects? Don’t you think people are overreacting? Do you remember this DOVE advert that was meant to say that, Dove products suit every type of skin, and people took it as offensive because of the girl changing from black to white? Excuse me, but in my opinion it’s just picking holes in something very simple. When I saw this picture of a boy, I just thought that it’s a funny hoodie. I was even thinking of buying it to my niece, as me and my family call him “little monkey”. And in my point of view, that’d be all right if in the picture was a girl, smiling or laughing and that would not caused any issue. Therefore, I was surprised when The Weeknd, Canadian pop star of Ethiopian descent, resigned from co-working with the brand.


His Twitter statement saying:





was very clear.

Alright, so despite different points of view, how did H&M do in terms of dealing with this uncomfortable situation?


Citing Jack Gottschalk, author of an eBook called “Crisis Management”: “There is a recognized need to inform the public about the problem, generally through news media, how it is being handled, why it happened, and how it will affect people”. (Gottshalk, J. 2002). So let’s have a look how H&M managed to resolve their issue.


First of all, it’s worth to mention that H&M apologised for it: “This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended.” They also removed the image from all H&M channels.

“It is obvious that our routines have not been followed properly. This is without any doubt,” the company said. “We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”
(The New York Times, 2018)

As you can see they informed how they handled this situation, why it happened as well as how it will affect everyone by withdrawing this item from the worldwide production.


Overall, for me it’s a perfect example of well managed PR scandal. So even though H&M paid a big price of a loss of consumer satisfaction and loyalty, in my opinion at least they behaved in a way that it should have been done.


What do you think about all of this? Do you agree with negative opinions about this image? How did H&M do when it comes to handling crisis? Has it affected your perception of the brand? Let me know in the comments below!

anita.


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