Skip to main content

My Reaction to the SheaMoisture Commercial that Received Backlash


My Reaction to the SheaMoisture Commercial that Received Backlash

Since the beginning of my (adulthood) natural hair journey, I was there for SheaMoisture. Every time I heard the name I associated it with Black women and the natural hair movement. After hearing about the controversy surrounding their latest commercial, I decided to see the commercial for myself.  When I watched it, I felt no connection to it at all.

Even though the commercial included one woman who was natural, she looked like she could be bi-racial and had a loose hair texture. In the one minute video, the camera moves from the natural to 3 white women. The natural and blonde-haired women talk about how hard it was to accept their hair and hair color. The commercial ends with "Everybody Gets Love"-- that kumbaya moment (rolls eyes).

I'm guessing the company made the decision to include "everybody" from a business standpoint. However, I don't understand excluding kinky hair in their commercial. I know their products were established in 1912, but they have been marketing to the natural hair community heavily for the last 6 or 7 years. I've been rooting for them since 2012 (a year after going natural), but again, I felt no connection to the new commercial and now ultimately the brand.



 
1BlessedNatural: I was looking for something like this in the SheaMoisture commercial.
Since the release of the commercial, SheaMoisture has received so much backlash from Black women who are hurt. There are also some who say "get over it" and are not bothered by the commercial. I think there is nothing wrong with appealing to a bigger audience, and you have to be realistic about that when talking about business. However, the move to not include the people who were such a big part of the development of the brand is a no-no!

Yesterday, the company released a public apology on Facebook to their "#SheaFam," explaining that they messed up and were removing the advertisement altogether. According to SheaMoisture, the commercial was a part of a larger campaign that included other ethnicities. They said,"We must absolutely ensure moving forward that our community is well-represented in each one so that the women who led this movement never feel that their hair journey is minimized in any way."

If you're wondering about who is included in "our community,"  it is the Black community. SheaMoisture is a Black owned company which adds to the shock of the commercial. When you're talking about advertising, this means a group of people sat down and decided on every element in the video, what to include or not. SMH. If you haven't seen it, check the video out below and let me know what you think!








What do you think about the new SheaMoisture commercial and their apology?

Related Articles: SheaMoisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie Product Review

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Aborigines and Melanesians: Naturally Blonde Hair and Dark Skin

Melanesia: Solomon Island girls (photo courtesy of the -cropped-Flickr- Australian Civil-Military Centre http://www.acmc.gov.au/ ) Naturally blonde hair is often associated with white or Caucasian people. However, there are groups of dark skin people who have naturally blonde hair also. Some of these groups include the Aboriginal Australians (Aborigines) and the Melanesians. I love this fact because it goes against the idea that one group or culture must look a certain way or stay in a certain category.  The Aborigines have dark skin. Some of them also have blonde hair which tends to be straight, but can be curly. Scientists first believed they were descendants of Eurasians. In 2011, scientists found evidence against the theory from a sample of natural hair. The sample of hair, which was said to be more than 100 years old, helped scientists determine that Aborigines were descendants of Africans. The New York Times confirmed this finding: "The Abo...
Read more

Sheryl Underwood Wears Natural Hair and Apologizes on The Talk

1BlessedNatural: Sheryl Underwood Wears Natural Hair and Apologizes on The Talk (photo cred: CBS/The Talk) Yesterday, comedian and talk show host, Sheryl Underwood wore her natural hair onstage of the talk show, The Talk. She received a round of applause, and Sharon Osbourne commented that her Teenie Weenie Afro (TWA) was gorgeous. Underwood explained to her fellow co-hosts and audience that she'd done something wrong 2 years ago when she spoke against the actions of Heidi Klum for keeping her sons' Afro hair in a bag as a keepsake. She said the hair was "nasty." Underwood received backlash for her words, especially from the Black community. They were viewed as examples of self-hatred among other things. On Monday's episode of The Talk Sheryl Underwood apologized a second time for her 2013 statement by saying this: I made some statements that were not only wrong, they hurt our community. When I say, "our community," I mean Black ...
Read more

Priscilla Shirer Shares Her Natural Hair Story and Tips on IG Live!

Actress and minister of Going Beyond Ministries Priscilla Shirer shared her natural hair story and secrets on IG Live today. After receiving numerous questions about her long thick natural hair, she decided it was time to do a video. Shirer said, "I've decided that sometimes, to a woman, hair = ministry." Shirer started getting a perm at about 13 years old. During previous years, her mother would use the hot comb to straighten her hair. When Shirer was 24 years old, she noticed a circular patch of hair that had broken off on the side of her head. After she visited a doctor and they plucked a few strands from different parts of her hair, the doctor concluded that Shirer's hair was growing in healthy. However, it was something that she was doing to her hair that was making it break off. As a result, her doctor told her to stop relaxing her hair for 6 months. While driving home, Shirer had a breakthrough. She originally had no intention of following the doctor...
Read more