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Unilever’s South African unit will establish an advisory board and diversity committee after apologizing for a hair care ad that it admitted was “racist,” the consumer group said on Friday.
The advertisement for its brand TRESemmé, posted on the Clicks Group pharmacy website last Friday, described images of African black hair as “curly and dull”, while a white woman’s hair was referred to as “normal.” .
It caused outrage on social media and sparked protests led by the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in a country where the unfair treatment of black hair evokes painful memories of prejudice during apartheid.
The then government used a “pencil test” to determine a person’s racial identity: a pencil was inserted into a person’s hair and, if it did not fall out, that person was considered not white.
“We were surprised to find that we had provided images for the Clicks website that showed black hair as inferior. This was racist and we apologize without reservation,” Unilever said in a statement.
