(image source: adweek.com)

BY: CHELSEA MCGARTLAND

You're watching multisource business video news analysis from Newsy. 

Skin care company Nivea has apologized for and pulled what critics are denouncing as -- a racist ad. HLN talks about the ad on Morning Express.

Robin Meade: “In it it’s suggested that African- American men could quote re-civilize themselves with Nivea skincare products.Nivea’s parent company pulled the ad after a lot of people complained about this on Twitter the company said it was sorry and called the ad inappropriate and offensive.”

The ad is part of a campaign called ‘look like you give a damn’ and another ad in the series features a white model, but the slogan reads “Sin City isn’t an excuse to look like hell” and also features a ‘mask’ with an unshaven face and long hair. A writer for the Huffington Post suggests-- the Swiss company really didn’t realize how offensive the ad was.

“Nivea's pick of slogans might have been entirely arbitrary. But, as many argue, it could be that the brand is playing on one of the most pervading racial stereotypes applied historically to the black community.”

A writer for the blog Good points out -- Nivea isn’t the only company that’s made a quote “bigoted” marketing choice, but this one is-- pretty obvious.

“How long will it take for companies to realize that racism is not only morally wrong but bad for business? … Let's hope Nivea gets the message loud and clear.

Finally-- Forbes tries to find the silver lining of this faux-pas ….

“The irony here is that all of this represents progress, albeit in perverted form. Marketers are now taking pains to reach out to minority (and, yes, we do need a better term) consumers they were once content to ignore.”

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