H&M Struggles to Survive the Social Media Backlash

OVERVIEW

On January 7, 2018, clothing retailer H&M was publicly criticized after launching a product image of a young black boy wearing a hoodie labeled “coolest monkey in the jungle”. It began when New York Times columnist, Charles Blow, posted a screen grab of the printed hoodie on his Twitter account with the following commentary attached, “H&M, have you lost your damned minds ?!?!?!”.

Charles Blow's tweet regarding H&M’s racial hoodie (@CharlesMBlow, 2018)

The hoodie was featured on Britain's H&M page and soon sparked outrage with many social media users. The product itself and the coinciding image created an uproar of social media backlash due to the implied racial slur being photographed on a black boy.

PUBLIC'S RESPONSE

After the hoodie was released on H&M’s Britain website, celebrities and other twitter users began to criticize and express their disappointment in the brand. Many high profile celebrities including The Weeknd and P. Diddy disassociated themselves from the brand because of H&M’s racial insensitivity. They began to rally behind the young model, Liam Mango, with images depicting him as a king. Boycotts were commencing, even staging riots and protests in response to H&M’s clothing line.

The Weekend dissociates himself from H&M (@theweekend, 2018)

Rapper, P. Diddy, depicts young model as a king (@Diddy, 2018)

Lebron James, depicts young model as a king on Instagram account (@kingjames, 2018)

COMPANY RESPONSE

Along with pulling the product from online, they eventually pulled the sweatshirt from stores. They also promised that this poor mistake would be looked into and make sure it would never happen again, “It is obvious that our routines have not been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.” They wanted to prove their loyalty to their consumers and keep their promise so one way they showed that was when they decided to hire a diversity leader. On Jan. 9, they further apologize on Instagram and other social media platforms.