Black woman turning white: Dove apologises for ’racist’ advertising campaign

It's not the first time Dove has been criticised for being racially insensitive in an advertisement.

Dove is facing heat for a body wash ad showing a black woman taking off her shirt to reveal a white woman, with many social media users calling it racist.

Dove has removed the post from its Facebook page and posted comments on social media on Saturday saying it "missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully."

In an emailed statement Sunday, Dove said the ad, a three-second video clip, "did not represent the diversity of real beauty which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened ... we apologize deeply and sincerely for the offense that it has caused."

The advertisement was a gif showing a black woman taking off her brown shirt to reveal a white woman, who then took off her lighter-colored shirt, revealing a woman of color in a slightly darker shirt.

While that post has been taken down, there are screenshots from the ad circulating broadly online. One is a group of four images from the ad that show only the black woman turning into the white woman.

Social media users said there were racist implications of a soap ad that showed a black woman transforming into a white woman and noted there is a historical legacy of racism in soap ads.

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