H&M Slammed for Advertising Gimmick Using Black Boy Model

A wise woman once said: “There is no such thing as bad publicity: ALL publicity is good publicity.”

H&M is the latest retailer to use
creative advertising gimmicks to drive traffic to their online store.
H&M came under fire over the weekend for using a black boy model to advertise a “coolest monkey in the jungle” hoodie. The advertisement appeared on H&M’s UK website.

Many outraged Twitter users who don’t even shop at H&M threatened to boycott their stores.

But, in the end, H&M got what they wanted: tons of press and more traffic to their websites in Europe and in the U.S.

H&M, which is based in Sweden, apologized and removed the advertisement on Sunday.

“This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended,” the company told the NY Daily News .

Two other hoodies from the same company featured white boy models, including one labeled a jungle “survival expert.”

Racism in advertising as PR stunts has worked well in the past for other corporations, including Dove Soap, whose ad featuring a black woman turning white sparked outrage — and drove more traffic to the website.