Burt’s Bees featured an extremely distasteful advertisement. The Amazon ad photographed a Black family wearing the brand’s matching holiday pajamas.
If you haven’t seen the ad yourself, you may be wondering what all of the commotion is about. The outrage is due to the fact that the company carelessly represented a stereotype. The Black family was photographed without a father, compared to previous ads made featuring white families.
The Company Tweeted an apology Thursday after receiving a great deal of backlash.
“We are so deeply sorry. We have learned a lot this year about impact and intent. Our intent was never to promote an awful stereotype about black families or to inflict hurt upon anyone. We understand that even so, there is an impact and this image causes harm,” the company said.
— Burt’s Bees (@BurtsBees) November 23, 2020
Apparently, real families were photographed. Burt’s Bees claims that the photoshoot conflicted with the Black dad’s work schedule.
“We promise that this one post is not indicative of our core values, and we hope that you’ll see that by diving deeper into our website and our social channels,” the statement continued.
Burt’s Bees was extremely irresponsible for allowing an ad of this nature to run. The people agree, calling their excuse lame. The Boycott Burt’s Bees movement has grown quite a following as a result.
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Stereotypes are based on reality, which is not Burt’s Bees problem. Of course we want to be better than reality, but that’s up to us to change, not a corporation. I raised my daughter as a single parent, so I get it. Which brings me to my own complaint about the ad. The two sets of PJs on the top feature two families that show everyone, including the dog, wearing the same PJs – EXCEPT for the fathers who have different tops than the rest of the family. WTH is that about? l consider that sexist and I’m not joking. Big ol’ daddy is portrayed as different for some reason? Is that a head of household statement? If they want to have both parents wear the different tops than fine. But to just have the father wearing it not only looks ridiculous, but it’s sexist. Woman are just as much the head of household as men. Again, a stereotype that needs to be changed. Burt’s Bees is no longer owned by Burt. He passed away years ago. Sadly, the company was sold to a corporation. That’s where this whole thing went flat. The ad campaign failed on multiple levels. Besides the stereotypes, Burt would never have expanded to PJs. He was an old hippy. They sleep naked ; )
No wonder you are a single mother! You sound horrid!
On behalf of Burt’s Bees Baby, in response to an image of a family shown on our website, we are deeply sorry for the hurt this image has caused. We recognize the importance of portraying families in a way that doesn’t promote harmful stereotypes. Our choice to use this photo when part of the family was not available for a rescheduled photoshoot was wrong, and we have removed the image from our website.
These four images were not part of an ad and not collectively compiled by our Company, but pasted together by a Twitter user using different images of actual families we have on our website, which includes of other representations of real Black families.
Even so, we have learned a lot about impact and intent, and we own the responsibility of the impact of having the image on our website. We understand that representation matters, and that representation has impact.
Please know that Burt’s Bees Baby is actively and continually working on our own inclusion and diversity journey as an organization. Our mission has always been to do good, to be kind, to care for all families, our planet and each other. We aim for inclusivity and hope to reflect that throughout every aspect of our company. We will do better.
HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!
I so needed this laugh! Brilliant!
It’s ridiculous that people especially “blacks” get offended (fake outrage) when things like this are presented in the media. Who cares that this woman in particular isn’t a single mother. The reality is that the majority of “black” mothers are head of single parent homes. Don’t encourage talks of being strong because you’re a single mother and then get upset on the other hand when that actually fact is presented/depicted on a wide scale. A quickness to be angered when the truth is shown shows a deeper issue that’s never touched upon.
If “black” single mothers, by choice, unmarried specifically, truly valued their image and cared to not be viewed negatively, they would ultimately put themselves first for a change and stop continuously picking up the slack for beings that don’t have an interest in being good fathers or fathers at all, but also somehow find it difficult to use protection. Stop complaining about the issues and actually make the changes.
Burt’s Bees owed no apology for a large majority of “black” males choosing not to be present as fathers in the lives of the children that their “seed” created. Stop excusing insane behavior.
I bet blacks don’t even use Burt’s Bees products!
Thank god for the internet. What would we do without it.