Nivea Lotion Ad Says Afros Are Uncivilized

Questlove of The Roots Begs to Differ

An old Right Guard deodorant commercial once claimed that using anything else but their sports sticks “would be uncivilized.” True, body odor is never a good look. Nivea lotion seems to think the same about anybody wearing an afro.

In a new ad campaign for their men’s shaving products line, the lotion maker is encouraging guys to “look like you give a damn” about appearance. The ad features a clean-shaven African American male with a decapitated head full of hair in his hand, looking like he’s about to heave it Olympic shot put style.

Blogger Miss Jia calls the ad “culturally insensitive” and while FiveFifths at 40 Acres and a Cubicle says it's “willfully ignorant.” Roots drummer Questlove, who bears a striking resemblance to the “uncivilized” head took particular offense tweeting “#fucknivea” to show his disapproval.

You can’t help but to think that this is how Nivea really thinks about Black men with hair and that its a strategically targeted message. Especially when you consider that its almost impossible to find an image of a Black guy on their company website.

This is just the latest example of cosmetic hygiene companies missing the mark when it comes to their ethnic marketing.

Last month Summer’s Eve managed to pull off a hat trick offending three different groups at the same time with their “Hail to the V” videos that featured hands mimicking a talking vagina. Each of them had ethnic accents with the Black vagina saying she couldn’t wait to “hit the club” and the Latina vagina screaming “ay-yi-yi” and talking about having a gang of babies and looking forward to wearing her leopard thong.

Dove soap found themselves in some hot water when they put out an ad suggesting that their product could change rough Black skin into smooth Hispanic skin and then pure white skin.

What happened to just saying that your product works and is better than the competition? Evidently cosmetic hygiene companies are under the impression that Black folks just can’t stand the skin (and hair) they’re in.