Dove has been gaining a bit of buzz recently, but not in the best way. Their most recent ad has caused a bit of controversy showing a black girl taking off her shirt and changing into a white woman. People have mixed feelings towards the ad. The most common argument against the ad was that it seemed as if Dove was symbolizing black as dirty and white as purity. A black girl turning white is supposed to mean “clean”. The unpopular opinion was Dove is for all skin colors, regardless of race. The thing is, one never knows what goes on in the mind of the creators behind a campaign, so how can anyone assume the meaning?

However, this hasn’t been Dove’s first accident. For example:  In 2011 it was “Before and After.” Dove featured three women : an African-American, a Mulatto, and a Caucasian. Dove says “everyone took the ad the wrong way, it was supposed to be that all skin deserves gentleness.” Others weren’t so easily convinced. They tweeted “The racist Dove ad is a continutian on a long history of racist soap advertising.” What caught some eyes was “before and after”, which seemed to be the racist part about the whole ad. Dove apologized recently but its definite that they’ve got to tread lightly with future campaigns.

Don’t get it wrong Dove is not the only company being scrutinized for controversial ads/marketing. A Donut Franchise Goes With Blackface to Promote “Charocal Donut.” The feed was going on a tangent about the ad and how it made females with dark skin feel.The producer of the ad Thai Franchise was recalatant “We’re not allowed to use black people to promote our doughnuts? What if the product was white and I painted someone white would that be racist?” Thai stated.

Another incident was Nivea with their ad that said “Others might keep it clean by only having white purity”. When the ad was released the Twitter feed went right into it. People took the ad as Nivea saying “It’s supposed to mean that white is pure. Black is dirty.” Thankfully, Nivea addressed the issue saying “We really apologize we didn’t mean to be offensive.”

One more ad that was interpreted as racist was “Fairy Soap”. Even though it’s older the ad anticipate a White kid speaking to a Black  kid. The white kids asks the black kid,  “why don’t your mom wash you with fairy soap, In order to become white like me?” Since then the feeds says “This just keeps happening with racist ads and stereotypes around them.