It's a new day, and a new brand has taken it upon itself to make its users and social media gasp collectively in horror and retaliate, before caving in to pressure and pulling an offensive product off the market. Wycon Cosmetics, an Italian beauty brand, just last night issued an apology for its insensitively named 'Thick As A Nigga' nail paint, switching the name to 'Black Power' on its website and promising to phase the product out from its over 200 stores across Italy, Europe and Asia.
Here's the brand's formal apology, posted on Instagram:
Wycon may have apologised now but not before defending itself valiantly, if fruitlessly, in the immediate aftermath of the lashback.
It all started a few days ago when the cosmetics giant dropped a new collection of semi-permanent gel nail paints in the market. The darkest shade in its 30-colour collection was called 'Thick As A Nigga', a name that obviously didn't go down too well with the brand's Black customer base and, well, anyone with even a modicum of understanding of racially obtuse language.
Italian brand Wycon Cosmetics sales must’ve been low so they decided to use the #dogwhistle tactic to increase them. This is becoming a popular tactic within these White Supremacist ran companies pic.twitter.com/OP5xwFlWir
— Marv’s World Radio (@MarvsWorldRadio) January 22, 2018
1 I never heard of wycon cosmetics, 2. Thick as a nigga?! Like what?
— Mia L. (@miarose_) January 22, 2018
3 “what can we do to make this right? Huh?” Lol
When users started calling out Wycon for using a racial slur for branding purposes, its stout response was, "They're made up names that are a bit crazy." No, we didn't make that up, it actually happened.
Obviously, that pissed people off even more and an avalanche of negative comments and criticism soon followed on social media. But the company still wouldn't give up. It tried to explain away its poor choice of marketing with a comment in Italian on its original post that was translated by Forbes magazine. It roughly read, "We're sorry that this post has triggered these types of reactions: every colour from our Gel On collection is inspired, with a cheerful attitude and a pinch of naivety, by famous song titles, many of which derive from the landscape of hip hop. For example Drop It Like It's Hot by Snoop Dogg, Bootilicious by Beyonce, Candy Shop by 50 Cent, Lollipop, Lady Marmalade etc... The reference here is Thick Nigga by DBangz. Wycon is the brand for everybody #nobodyexcluded is our motto and we didn't mean to offend anybody."
The brand claims naivety. Now there's an oversimplification, or a case of serious laziness, if there ever was one. How does anyone, let alone a global brand, in this day and age, with the explosion of content and conversations about inclusivity and racial discrimination get to claim "naivety" while using a slur like 'Nigger', with its long, painful and violent history? Justifying it by saying that a Black rapper used it too, just shows how out of touch Wycon is with its customer base. Black people have claimed the slur and made it their own, they can use it, brands and White people can't. Especially not to exploit it for commercial purposes. How is that so difficult to understand?
Sometimes, brands do things that can make anyone with a basic degree of common sense shake their head vigorously in disagreement and horror. So we wonder how they manage to get past all the suits with fancy marketing degrees and hefty paycheques. Perhaps Wycon would do well to borrow a leaf out of H&M's book and hire a diversity and inclusion global head.
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