Today, Nivea issued an apology via Facebook:
Thank you for caring enough to give us your feedback about the recent “Re-civilized” NIVEA FOR MEN ad. This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company.
Although the advertisement ran in Esquire, the web, and was, according to the company, “inappropriate and offensive,” the people over at Nivea decided to use it anyway.
According to a credible source who worked on the project, the “Look Like You Give A Damn” campaign was the brainchild of Nivea’s new African-American vice president who was hired to target the urban market.
The source tells Clutch, “The VP in charge of the entire marketing campaign for the men’s skin care line is a Black male who mainly got in the position to put Blacks on a cosmetics branding pedestal – hence the brand now having a black spokesmodel.”
Further details from the source reveals the initial ad featuring a Black male model is apart of a larger series of more print ads, viral, and commercial spots which will also feature White male models using similar text. We should also note the model in the now controversial ad is BJ Williams, and popular writer, Oren Wilkes, is a Nivea blogger ambassador and agency creative on the project.
But on the latest Nivea ad featuring a White male model, the former ‘Civilized’ text is replaced with the line ‘Sin city isn’t an excuse to look like hell.’
Is it safe to say Black men look uncivilized, and White men look like hell?
What do you think of Nivea’s apology? Why do companies continue to miss the mark when marketing toward multicultural audiences?
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