• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Nivea pulls ‘offensive’ ad

Hatuey

Rule of Two
DP Veteran
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
59,299
Reaction score
26,919
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Undisclosed
Nivea pulls offensive ad

nivea_203115.jpg


Nivea, a company that specializes in skin-care products, recently released a print ad that it has since pulled. How to best describe the ad? It shows an African American man preparing to toss a decapitated head (his own?) with an afro-style haircut. The ad copy reads: "Re-Civilize Yourself." The underlying message seems to be that afros are not civilized.

Almost immediately, the ad met with outrage. The Los Angeles Times reported that Facebook users began "posting photos of themselves with Afros on Nivea's wall, saying things such as: 'I wear my hair natural and I just graduated with my doctorate! So who needs to be re-civilized?? Nivea no longer welcomed in my household.' "

Nivea has since taken down the ad and issued an apology via Facebook. "Thank you for caring enough to give us your feedback about the recent 'Re-civilized' Nivea for Men ad. This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company."

This is an example of a company not doing ENOUGH market research and simply trying to be cool. It's simply ridiculous to assert that a person isn't civilized simply because they have longer hair whether they're black or white. Pop culture has long made long hair, piercings, tattoos a non-issue. However, companies insist that if a certain look is not kept then that person is "less" than others. It's a shame really.
 
Last edited:
Holy hell. Whoever designed that ad, and all the people who signed off on it, need to be fired. And they will probably never work again.

How dense do you need to be to run an ad like that in the year 2011? Seriously, it should be dead-obvious how racist that is.
 
Holy hell. Whoever designed that ad, and all the people who signed off on it, need to be fired. And they will probably never work again.

How dense do you need to be to run an ad like that in the year 2011? Seriously, it should be dead-obvious how racist that is.

I don't think it's racist as it's part of a campaign so they created various depictions of the same concept. They have white/black models "re-civilizing" themselves. They guy who conceptualized this is probably some AIP graduate who went ahead with an idea and very little input was actually gathered from the targeted market.
 
I don't think it's racist as it's part of a campaign so they created various depictions of the same concept. They have white/black models "re-civilizing" themselves. They guy who conceptualized this is probably some AIP graduate who went ahead with an idea and very little input was actually gathered from the targeted market.

Ah, ok. Still, pretty bad. This concept that a haircut makes you "civilized" or not. What a landmine they stepped on.
 
Ah, ok. Still, pretty bad. This concept that a haircut makes you "civilized" or not. What a landmine they stepped on.

Yep. It's the lack of actual communication between departments. I worked for L'Oreal and their marketing team in France a few years ago. Their HR and PR departments barely have any dialogue with the people in marketing. There is also a complete lack of market research beyond "what sells" and "what do men want to look like". Those who point out glaring issues are usually silenced by advertising agencies who just want to get paid for campaigns.
 
This is another case of the abuse of the term "racism" these days. Do you honestly think that word would come up if the ad was a white man preparing to toss a white head with a mullet?
 
This is another case of the abuse of the term "racism" these days. Do you honestly think that word would come up if the ad was a white man preparing to toss a white head with a mullet?

Abuse? No. They have reason to believe it's racist. Nobody would say Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas or Brad Pitt are "uncivilized" simply because they have long hair. The ad is unintentionally racist which is what I meant to say in my earlier posts. Nothing to go boycotting them about. Just companies who want to sell without doing market research.
 
This is another case of the abuse of the term "racism" these days. Do you honestly think that word would come up if the ad was a white man preparing to toss a white head with a mullet?

Had it been confined to one race (as I mistakenly thought it was before Hautey clarified) it would be appropriate. Even applying it to white people with mullets, it's pretty offensive to say someone is or is not a civilized human being because of a haircut. Especially since people have associations when combining "uncivilized" with styles. A bush "savage" in the case of black people and "trailer trash" in the case of whites. Yeah, that's offensive. Yeah, it's equally offensive in either case. And a really stupid idea for an ad.

I am unlikely to actually take up arms against offensive and stupid advertising. This is a free country. And I can vote with my dollars. But why shouldn't I call it what it is?

Discrimination based on what people look like is very real. And it needs to be very seriously condemned.
 
Abuse? No. They have reason to believe it's racist. Nobody would say Johnny Depp, Antonio Banderas or Brad Pitt are "uncivilized" simply because they have long hair. The ad is unintentionally racist which is what I meant to say in my earlier posts. Nothing to go boycotting them about. Just companies who want to sell without doing market research.

You make my point that this ad insults hairstyle and NOT race.
 
This is another case of the abuse of the term "racism" these days. Do you honestly think that word would come up if the ad was a white man preparing to toss a white head with a mullet?

:lamo :lamo

So a mullet is uncivilized?
 
Who says they want to look "civilized" anyway? Using a term like that to describe a stereotypical appearance and degrade another is bound to end up offending people. Tattoos, piercings, afros, etc. do not make a person uncivilized. My sister has piercings and wants tattoos, and she is going to law school. I just had this conversation with somebody who considers people with tattoos freaks and losers...

:lamo
 
Last edited:
Who says they want to look "civilized" anyway? Using a term like that to describe a stereotypical appearance and degrade another is bound to end up offending people. Tattoos, piercings, afros, etc. do not make a person uncivilized. My sister has piercings and wants tattoos, and she is going to law school. I just had this conversation with somebody who considers people with tattoos freaks and losers...

:lamo

I read about a woman who was a lawyer and had basically a full-body tattoo apart from her head, hands, and feet, and another who worked an office job, and wore professional concealing make-up every single day to hide her face tattoos. People who believe that people with non-typical aesthetics, voluntary or otherwise, are somehow inferior or freaks need to get out out more. It's nothing but xenophobia.
 
I read about a woman who was a lawyer and had basically a full-body tattoo apart from her head, hands, and feet, and another who worked an office job, and wore professional concealing make-up every single day to hide her face tattoos. People who believe that people with non-typical aesthetics, voluntary or otherwise, are somehow inferior or freaks need to get out out more. It's nothing but xenophobia.

The other thing is afros are more natural than relaxed or straightened hair.... I knew somebody that got chemical burns on her scalp from a relaxer. Is burning your scalp to attain a certain appearance acting civilized? Is that more civilized or less civilized than putting a plate in your lip to attain a different culture's approved appearance? IDK... it's kind of weird no matter which way you look at it. Telling somebody their appearance is not civilized is just offensive though, and that should be common sense.
 
You make my point that this ad insults hairstyle and NOT race.

You can try and insult something, an end up insulting something else. For example, Letterman tried to insult Palin's daughter with a bastard child. He ended up insulting the little retarded daughter who never says anything. When your goal is to insult, you're bound to make mistakes and end up saying something you didn't mean.
 
Last edited:
You can try and insult something, an end up insulting something else. For example, Letterman tried to insult Palin's daughter with a bastard child. He ended up insulting the little retarded daughter who never says anything. When your goal is to insult, you're bound to make mistakes and end up saying something you didn't mean.

It sounds like you are confusing the meaning of the terms "insult" and "offend". Someone could insult me by saying "you suck at math," but I will clearly not be offended because I know they are wrong. Even if an entire class of people are offended by a statement, that does not logically imply that the statement was discriminatory towards that class.
 
This is another case of the abuse of the term "racism" these days. Do you honestly think that word would come up if the ad was a white man preparing to toss a white head with a mullet?

No, why would that be racist? Uncivilized hasn't historically been a slur used against white people, so it wouldn't carry any racist meaning.
 
No, why would that be racist? Uncivilized hasn't historically been a slur used against white people, so it wouldn't carry any racist meaning.

I don't believe there was a time in history that the phrase "he is uncivilized" implied "he is black" according to the general population.

Personally, I think it's ridiculous that people get offended over something like this. Is it wise advertisement? Clearly, it isn't.
 
I don't believe there was a time in history that the phrase "he is uncivilized" implied "he is black" according to the general population.

Personally, I think it's ridiculous that people get offended over something like this. Is it wise advertisement? Clearly, it isn't.

Europeans used the term uncivilized to describe the Native Americans and people they encountered in Africa. The Mormon religion kind of took that further in describing the Native Americans... it's kind of common knowledge.
 
I don't believe there was a time in history that the phrase "he is uncivilized" implied "he is black" according to the general population.

People talked about slavery as a process of "civilizing" blacks for example. The notion that black people are not civilized is absolutely dead center of the worst racial slurs and attacks on black people in history.

The whole thing where people say "well if he was white/black instead of black/white you wouldn't think it was racist, therefore it isn't racist" rarely works. White people and black people are in different situations, the historical contexts are different, the implications of things are different, the effects are different, etc.
 
People talked about slavery as a process of "civilizing" blacks for example. The notion that black people are not civilized is absolutely dead center of the worst racial slurs and attacks on black people in history.

The whole thing where people say "well if he was white/black instead of black/white you wouldn't think it was racist, therefore it isn't racist" rarely works. White people and black people are in different situations, the historical contexts are different, the implications of things are different, the effects are different, etc.

I stand corrected, but people need to get with modern times. It has gotten to the point that I apply the moral of The Boy Who Cried Wolf to the cry of racism.
 
It sounds like you are confusing the meaning of the terms "insult" and "offend". Someone could insult me by saying "you suck at math," but I will clearly not be offended because I know they are wrong. Even if an entire class of people are offended by a statement, that does not logically imply that the statement was discriminatory towards that class.

It sounds like you have zero reading comprehension. Whether or not the add meant to insult/offend(which by the way are synonyms) is irrelevant. That's what ended up happening. By trying to make the case that long hair itself was civilized, the brand made it look as if afros were uncivilized. Bad market research. Weak execution. Unintended racist comment. End of discussion.
 
For me the offense is beyond whether this is about race or long hair, it's a company trying to educate and dictate to the public what is "civilized" in order to pitch their product.

This is the perfect example of how big companies with influence are changing social beliefs and behaviors. It's so prevalent yet unnoticed that people don't even see it happening. I'm having a debate in another thread about same-sex marriage and its impacts on society. I think business marketing has had a WAY bigger impact on society's values than anything else.

And last time we used the word "civilized" in a widely social manner, was to describe lesser peoples than ourselves in the good old colonial era. I think this is one term that we could live without resurrecting!
 
Last edited:
Well - no such thing as bad PR. I've never paid attention to the hygene products that Nivea produces until this very moment. IN fact, I don't recall ever noticing a Nivea advertisement - until now.

Amazing how that works, hunh? They plunge a huge budget into marketing a product yet get extensive free and wide-audienced notice by creating one that is 'pulled' because it's 'offensive'

Per hair and so on: yes - dreads, tossed and other natural or uncombed 'looks' really do suggest you don't give a **** about your appearance - and in the real world appearances do matter which is why almost every place of employment has some type of code-of-appearance standards they expect people to abide by.

I'd love to never have to wash laundry a day in my life, again, or take time to keep my lovely locks somewhat presentable but that just would make me look like a disgusting scum - bringing into question everything else about my mode of existance.

If it was a white dude with a caveman head in his hand no one would give a ****.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom