If you have not been social media for the past few days, here is the tea. Clicks’ website put up an advertisement contrasting hair between “healthy” and “unhealthy” hair. The advert cut the line between the two using natural hair as examples of the “unhealthy” hair, and you have guessed it; Becky looking hair as the “healthy” hair every women should aspire too.
It does turn out that, Clicks is actually not all to the blame for the advertisement, just that they are guilty for hosting the advertisement on their website. The real culprit for the whole racially charged saga is TRESemme. The haircare range was responsible for the advertisement that went on to the Clicks website.
In their public statement TRESemme stated, “We are very sorry that images used by TRESemme South Africa marketing campaign on the Clicks website appears to promote racist stereotypes about hair. Our campaign set out to celebrate the beauty of all hair types and the range of solution that TRESemme offers but we got it wrong.”
The statement than goes on to say, “TRESemme South Africa apologises for the offence these images caused as well as the Clicks Group.” The statement took onus of the advert, and hoped to vindicate Clicks to its consumers. The verdict is still out on that matter, but one thing we know is Afrobotanics and Black Pearl Hair is staying available at Clicks stores.
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Pearl Thusi shared the statement from the company on her Instagram post. The official statement was released by the mother company of her haircare range, Afrobotanics owner, Ntombenhle Khathwane. Ntombenhle has been doing interviews on the matter, but on Instagram this is what she had to say, which Pearl concurred too.
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“I argue that as a supplier to Clicks I would support a consumer boycott of Clicks or of Tresemme, but what is the point of then shopping at Shoprite for example? Less representation and participation of African people in there. There is limited meaningful participation of black people in all aspects and levels of retail in South Africa, period! The consumer could change that if there really was an intention to do so.”
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Mama Pantha has not even bothered to address the matter on Twitter, because of her tumultuous relationship with the app. The decision is a safe on, considering that the chances are high she would get dragged for anything she would tweet on the matter.
