Nivea Apologizes for Ad Telling Black Men to ‘Re-civilize’ Themselves

Nivea For Men has apologized to people who were disturbed by a racially insensitive ad placed in a recent edition of Esquire magazine. The controversial ad has made its rounds across the Web since Wednesday and features several troubling images: a clean-shaven black man with close-cropped hair angrily throwing the severed head of a Afro-wearing, bearded black man. The text of the ad tells readers: “Re-civilize yourself” and has the caption “Look like you give a damn.”
When reached by Colorlines.com earlier this week, a spokesperson for the company said, “We always consider tone, message and sensitivity to all audiences in developing our creative campaigns. We apologize to anyone who may take offense to this specific advertisement.”
For many, the racial undertones were in fact hard to escape.
Over at GOOD, Nona Willis Aronowitz points out that this isn’t the first time Nivea’s ads have caught people’s attention for the wrong reasons. Britini Danielle writes at Cutch, “While I remember the old school Gillette ads that warned men that anything less than their products would be ‘uncivilized,” there’s something about this image that rubs me the wrong way.”
And she wasn’t the only one. On Thursday, “Nivea” was a trending topic on Twitter. People on the social network voiced their outrage with messages like, “Nivea claims that black people aren’t civilized,” and called the ad “unapologetically racist.”
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