Shea Moisture Ad Controversy

Posted on by Ashley Moore

Shea Moisture recently released an ad spotlighting caucasian women using their products and a mixed girl. This commercial sparked a lot of controversy because Shea Moisture’s products are the forefront of the African American women’s natural hair care community. The timing couldn’t have been worse because this comes just after Kendall Jenner and Pepsi faced controversy because the minority community felt that Pepsi made protesting look like a fun thing and put a white woman at the center of what is a national struggle now. It’s kind of the same premise. Black people felt like Shea Moisture wanted to use white women at the center of the ad to make it look more attractive when in fact, Shea Moisture’s audience is a black majority.

Shea Moisture came out and apologized for the ad and said they were just trying to expand their brand, but there were a few things they could have done differently. Maybe if they had split the main characters in the ad between black and white women and actually used black women with thick course hair, that isn’t commercialized most of the time, they might have been in the clear. After these two incidents, brands and their marketing are probably paying really close attention to what they put out and even the social media specialists are being edited with a fine tooth comb. So we just have to wait and see if another company falls into this marketing nightmare.

 

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