Footballer Romelu Lukaku has photoshopped H&M’s controversial ad campaign in the best way possible, as more people join in with criticism of the high street giant.
The advert, which featured on both H&M’s UK and US websites, was a child’s green hooded top emblazoned with the phrase: ‘Coolest Monkey In The Jungle’.
The child wearing the hoodie was black, leading to people pointing out the word ‘monkey’ has been a long-term racist slur.
So earlier today, (9 January), the Manchester United striker took matters into his own hands and doctored the image in the best way.
Captioning the image, which he changed to feature the slogan ‘black is beautiful’, Lukaku wrote:
You’re a prince soon to be a king. Don’t let anybody tell you different #blackexcellence.
This comes after The Weeknd revealed he’d be cutting ties with H&M.
The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, has been working as a collaborator with H&M on the XO clothing line, but told his eight million Twitter followers he was ‘deeply offended’ by the photo and said he was ‘shocked and embarrassed’.
He was met with praise by fans who applauded his decision.
One fan wrote:
I applaud you for doing this! Just disgraceful. I can’t believe anyone would even post this.
You have no reason to be embarrassed Abel. Keep being you.
H&M have since apologised and removed the item from their online platforms and said the product had been pulled from sale in the US.
The statement read:
We believe in diversity and inclusion in all that we do and will be reviewing all our internal policies accordingly to avoid any future issues.
Although H&M are yet to release an official statement addressing the controversy, in wake of the scandal, the image of the black child modelling the £7.99 top has since been taken down.
However a spokesman told The Daily Mail:
This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended.
These actions had already been called by musician and presenter, Questlove, who posted a photo of the image on Instagram with the caption:
I’m sure the apologies are a coming and the ads will be pulled. I’m certain there will be media fixers and whatnot and maybe a grand gesture like a donation to some charity (donations under these circumstances are the corporate version #SomeOfMyBestFriendsAre move if there ever was one) all this tells me about @HM is that the seats in the boardroom lack something…wanna take a guess?
Loving Lukaku’s Photoshop skills!
