H&M is a global brand; but as you can see from the picture above, their board of directors lacks diversity, any diversity. The Stefan Persson family, the Swedish billionaire founding family, owns the majority of voting shares, and by any metric you prefer they’re clearly a successful brand.
However, “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle” is probably a phrase every business should know not to associate with black people in their marketing campaigns, let alone a young black male… especially a company like H&M, the second largest clothing-retail company in the world with more than 4,500 stores and 130,000 employees. At least you’d think they’d know not to do such a thing, but apparently not.
H&M has often used black models and other people of color to represent their brand. Just take a look at their 2016 Annual Report, which is their main snapshot and pitch to current and potential investors…
So if these are the images they portray to their investors, why would they think a young black male in a “Coolest Monkey In The Jungle” hoodie would fly?
Lack of diversity, pure ignorance? Either way, when will large companies stop making such careless mistakes that threaten their bottom line? The Weekend quickly responded and tweeted to his 8 million + followers that he would no longer be working with them.
The 24/7 meme creators quickly responded. Too bad this isn’t the image H&M released in an attempt to market their youth apparel.
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