29 years after the end of apartheid, the South African Human Rights Commission has launched an investigation into a reportedly racist hair advert.

THE CLICKS HAIR SCANDAL 

In September, Clicks, a large South African beauty retailer, posted a now-withdrawn advert. The advert showed pictures of four women, two Black and two white. The Black women’s hair was described as “dry and damaged,” while that of the white women was “fine and flat” and “normal”. 

This caused outrage amongst South Africans, many of whom accused Clicks of being racist. 

As a result of the outcry, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has launched an investigation and expressed concern over the advert. The Commission has written a letter to Clicks, in which it calls on those responsible for the publication of this advert—including employees of Clicks, TRESemmé, Unilever South Africa, and any advertising or marketing entities involved—for a meeting. The Commission seeks to put in place “medium to long term requirements and mechanisms, to rectify the actions of the persons responsible,” and ensure, as far as possible, that such an incident does not occur again.  

The letter—confirmed to News24 by B. Jones, SAHRC provincial manager—details how the advert emphasises and perpetuates racist stereotypes surrounding Black hair and unfairly discriminates against Black people, especially Black women and girls. Consequently, “the advert and the inaction, unconsciousness or indifference of Clicks and Unilever South Africa obstructs and even dismantles the work done towards the realisation of equality for all and the constitutional project more generally.” 

THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS PROTEST

The Clicks advert has elicited strong emotions and protests from the general public. In particular, the South Africans Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)—a South African political party formed in 2013 by former African National Congress (ANC) member Julius Malema—are protesting, and the SAHRC has supported this protest while encouraging the EFF to keep it peaceful. This comes as some of the demonstrations have turned violent.

The EFF called the advert "racist" and "dehumanising". It further said that "the implications of this are that black identity exists as inferior to the identity of white people. It is an assertion that white standards of beauty are to be aspired to and features of black represent damage, decay and abnormality.” (emphasis added) The party has made a number of demands from the retailer, including that it makes public the names of all employees who were involved in the commissioning of the advertisement. The party also said it would continue protesting peacefully across the country and would not allow Clicks to operate until it addresses its demands. 

CLICKS’ APOLOGY: AN OPEN LETTER  

In its letter, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said it understood Clicks’ apology, disappointment, and action following the incident. Nonetheless, it remains committed “to understanding measures taken by Clicks to guard against such adverts in the future and other accountability and sensitivity measures the company intends to take going forward”.

In response, Clicks Group CEO, Vikesh Ramsunder, wrote an open letter in which he noted the company’s disappointment: “I am deeply disappointed that we allowed insensitive and offensive images to be published on our website. I apologise unreservedly for the hurt and anger these images have caused.”

He added that while, as a company, it cannot change what happened, it remains committed to effecting real, systemic change across the business. “This incident has highlighted the need to audit all of our 3rd party (and our own) promotional material for any implicit or explicit bias as well as the need for diversity and inclusivity training for all our head office employees,” Ramsunder wrote. 

At the same time, TRESemmé South Africa, the beauty company responsible for the images, and its parent company Unilever, have also apologised, saying it is not in line with the values of its brand or of Clicks. “We are very sorry that images used in a TRESemmé South Africa marketing campaign on the Clicks website promote racist stereotypes about hair,” the group said.

However, the damage was already done.  

Giulia is holds a Master's Degree in International Cooperation on Human Rights from the University of Bologna. She has a Bachelor's in Philosophy. Her fields of interest are immigration and refugee law, particularly related to unaccompanied foreign minors. She would love to work at the United Nations in the future.

LinkedIn