South Africans show off their natural crowns in rallying cry against offensive Clicks advert

South African women have turned an offensive haircare advert into a rallying cry to celebrate the beauty of their natural hair. This after an advert by the Clicks Group described natural black hair as “dry, damaged, frizzy and dull”.

The backlash started on Friday when a Clicks advert which described different types of hair started trending. In the advert were pictures of four women: two black and two white.

The advert described the two black women’s hair as, “dry and damaged” and “frizzy and dull”, while the white women’s hair was labelled as “fine and flat hair” and “normal hair”.

The Clicks Group has since taken down the images and issued an apology.

“We acted swiftly and immediately removed the offending images, which were provided by a supplier as part of their marketing campaign,” Clicks’ chief commercial officer Rachel Wrigglesworth said.

“As a brand, we recognise that we have a responsibility to use whatever influence we have to remove implicit and explicit prejudice from society, the workplace and our advertising.”

TRESemmé South Africa, the brand which was being advertised, has also issued an apology, saying the images do not support the brand’s values.

“The campaign set out to celebrate the beauty of all hair types and the range of solutions that TRESemmé offers, but we got it wrong,” the statement on the company’s website said.

“We are looking into how this happened and why it wasn’t picked up, and we will take all necessary steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

An apology issued by Tresemme South Africa after the Clicks hair debacle | Image: Twitter

In response to the advert, #clicksmustfall has been trending on social media and women have been posting images of their natural hair, celebrating its beauty.

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