[arista]

This was the one they removed from sale.
https://news.sky.com/story/the-weekn...child-11200833


The Man United Romelu Lukaku
did a photo shop version
shown on a TV News





Alot of Free Publicity?

[Shaun]

Most likely just a haphazard example of them trying to be both:
- Inclusive with their models
and - getting every single item of clothing modeled by whoever is in the studio that day

Nothing to see here, tbh

[Vicky.]

Seriously misjudged this mind. Have been talking about it elsewhere. This will have been passed through a large amount of people, and not one of them realized that many many people would find it offensive?!

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Seriously misjudged this mind. Have been talking about it elsewhere. This will have been passed through a large amount of people, and not one of them realized that many many people would find it offensive?!

It's probably a combination of people just not seeing it because they don't think racist thoughts (i wouldn't really have made the connection), and everyone looking at it from a "picture quality" perspective, only seeing that they chose the best shot, that whatever airbrushing they wanted to do was done right, etc.

[Tom4784]

It boggles my mind that this could have been okayed without anyone seeing the racial implications of it all.

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

It's probably a combination of people just not seeing it because they don't think racist thoughts (i wouldn't really have made the connection), and everyone looking at it from a "picture quality" perspective, only seeing that they chose the best shot, that whatever airbrushing they wanted to do was done right, etc.

But surely someone who looked over this (many people will have been involved) would know the racist connections to monkey and black people. Its not exactly little known.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

But surely someone who looked over this (many people will have been involved) would know the racist connections to monkey and black people. Its not exactly little known.

Don't get me wrong, I agree! I was just trying to think of reasons someone might have missed it, is all

[Shaun]

Cheekiest would've made sense at least, who the hell says 'cool monkey'

[arista]

Originally Posted by Shaun

Cheekiest would've made sense at least, who the hell says 'cool monkey'

Yes No One.
Its got H&M
prime time news
free publicity


Sure its a Cynical view



Life In The City

[montblanc]

very racially insensitive i don't understand how that was able to go through

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Shaun

Cheekiest would've made sense at least, who the hell says 'cool monkey'

Agree, with this.

[Cherie]

someone's getting sacked

[Vicky.]

Yeah cool monkey is very odd.

The argument elsewhere about this has brought up that parents of black kids would be racist for buying the hoodie Of course its not racist if the kids chooses the hoodie himself, but it is extremely racially insensitive to have this as advertising. Still cannot get over how many people must have been so ignorant (hopefully, ignorant is the best possible outcome here) of how monkey has been used in the past against black people.

The 'they did not notice as they are not racist' excuse really does not work. Yes, they may not associate black people with monkeys (****ing hope not anyway) but you would have to be living under a rock to not stop and think 'hmm, maybe this is not right' :S

[DemolitionRed]

There's nothing wrong with the t-shirt. Modeling it on a black child is the problem.

[Livia]

I call my nieces "monkeys" all the time. Would I say it to a black child? Probably not.

How does this sort of mistake make it this far without anyone spotting it?

[bitontheslide]

Cheeky Monkey would have been the obvious term, as its a common term of endearment, but not cool .... thats just weird

[LeatherTrumpet]

Just make sure that all of your advertising material and models show 8% black people and STOP trying to get likes by thinking this is what people want

[Northern Monkey]

It’s the worst most incompetent marketing decision you could think of.Even if i was the photographer i’d probably say something like ‘er are you sure this is a good idea?’

[Northern Monkey]

Deliberate for publicity maybe?

No one could be that dumb surely?

[Denver]

The only thing they are guilty of is using the wrong model for the campaign

[Amy Jade]

This reminds me of an old lady I work with who called a little girl taking a handful of those voting token things and she smiled and called her a cheeky little monkey and the three of us who heard were like 'oh no' but nobody said anything and it was meant with no harm so i dont think its offensive really just a bit thoughtless

[kystal555]

It is a bit wrong not being thought. Out properly it should have being a white kid

Sent from my KIW-L21 using Tapatalk

[Mystic Mock]

The term cool monkey is very odd.

I'm with Arista and think that this might've been a publicity stunt, it is ashame though that the word monkey is so badly associated with racism towards black people that our first reaction to this is "oh no" rather than just seeing it as another way of trying to manipulate kids into wanting the companies next product.

[Cherie]

Where were the child's parents when he was given this to model

[Brillopad]

Originally Posted by Amy Jade

This reminds me of an old lady I work with who called a little girl taking a handful of those voting token things and she smiled and called her a cheeky little monkey and the three of us who heard were like 'oh no' but nobody said anything and it was meant with no harm so i dont think its offensive really just a bit thoughtless

To me this shows how easy it is for people who want to be offended, in order to make a political point, to be offended by taking an everyday non-race related comment such as ‘cheeky little monkey’ and blowing it out of all proportion. It is an agenda. It is those that do this that are obsessed with skin colour and are effectively racist.