Nivea

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Nivea Logo.png

Nivea is a German personal care brand that specializes in body-care. It is owned by the Hamburg-based company Beiersdorf Global AG. The company was founded on 28 March 1886, by Paul Carl Beiersdorf. In 1890, it was sold to Oscar Troplowitz. Nivea comes from the Latin adjective niveus, nivea, niveum, meaning "snow-white".[1]

In 2017, Nivea was under fire for promoted Black & White Invisible Deodorant featuring the phrase "white is purity" across an image of a woman wearing a white robe. The ad was posted to Nivea's Facebook page with the caption "Keep it clean, keep bright. Don’t let anything ruin it, #Invisible."[2]

Nivea White is Purity.jpg
Nivea racial ad.jpg

The Controversy

Actually this is not the first time Nivea been accused of featuring racist ads. In 2011, the company released an ad showing a nicely dressed black man holding the head of a man with an Afro. The tagline, “Re-civilize yourself.” Nivea apologized for the campaign, calling it “inappropriate and offensive”.[3] Nivea was forced to remove that ad at the time following a similar uproar, but images of it were resurrected on social media this week following the "white is purity" backlash.

The "white is purity" campaign tagline is “Keep it clean, keep bright. Don’t let anything ruin it, #Invisible.” By using words like “clean,” “bright,” and “ruin”, and by introducing the officially undefined concept of “it,” NIVEA is stapling abstract standards of health and beauty onto a white-contained label, especially after fully establishing the threat and foreignness of blackness.[4]

Backlash

This advertisement, as it was immediately criticized with not only a flood of low-level public criticism, but also massive big-name media attention as well (New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and many more). BBC also published an article titled Nivea removes 'white is purity' deodorant advert branded 'racist' as a reaction to the inappropriate campaign.

Apology

The company apologized for the ad in a post on Facebook, saying, it was "not meant to be racially insensitive." “That image was inappropriate and not reflective of our values as a company. We deeply apologize for that and have removed the post. Diversity and inclusivity are crucial values of NIVEA. We take pride in creating products that promote beauty in all forms. Discrimination of any kind is simply not acceptable to us as a company, as employees, or as individuals.”

As the ad offended many people for being insensitive, Nivea’s decided to remove the ad after two days being posted on it's Facebook page and stop the entire campaign.[5]

References

  1. Nivea. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  2. Peterson, Hayley. A skin-care brand is under fire for an ad promoting the phrase 'white is purity', Business Insider, 5 April 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  3. Nudd, Tim. Nivea Apologizes for Wanting to ‘Re-Civilize’ Black Man, adweek.com, 18 August 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  4. dylparker Nivea: Gendered and Raced Care of the Self, blog.reed.edu, 16 April 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
  5. Tsang, Amie. Nivea Pulls ‘White Is Purity’ Ad After Online Uproar, The New York Times, 4 April 2017. Retrieved December 25, 2020.