H&M issues an apology following the backlash on its controversial ad, The Weekend, LebRon James cut ties

H&M - Hennes & Mauritz is a powerhouse high street Swedish brand that needs absolutely no introduction and has established and profit-making stores all across the globe. The fast fashion retail company is majorly famous for it's affordable, accessible, high on trend and good quality clothing as compared to its rival Forever 21, which often gets a lot of flak for its poor quality products.

The Swedish multinational has caught themselves amidst a very embarrassing and socially incorrect controversy. While everyone thought that racism was a thing of the past, H&M faced a lot of fire of an image that was posted on their website. The image was of a black child with a serious and blank expression dressed in a bottle green hoodie which had a caption printed on it saying, “Coolest monkey in the jungle”. The image of the little boy obviously didn’t go unnoticed especially when the other two white boys from the same photoshoot wore fun and colourful hoodies from the same range with child-like captions on it. With H&M facing a lot of deserving backlash from celebrities and people all over the World.

Starboy singer, The Weekend who had collaborated with the brand in 2017 where he had designed a collection and also modelled for it was “deeply offended” by the image and took to Twitter stating that he will be ending his relationship with the multinational brand. Other celebrities soon took it upon themselves to criticize this extremely insensitive, irresponsible and shallow display of defined racism.

American businessman, songwriter and rapper took to Instagram and shared the same image with a few modifications. The picture had a crown on the little boy’s head and his hoodie read, “Coolest King in the World”. He captioned the photo saying, “Put some respect on it!! When you look at us make sure you see royalty and supernatural God sent glory!! Anything else is disrespectful.” It has also been reported that Sean Combs aka P. Diddy will be offering the little boy in the image a modelling contract worth $1 million.

LeBron James, American basketball player also ripped off the brand as he posted on the same image but modified it by putting a crown on the head and a crown picture over the heartless caption on the hoodie. He wrote an inspiring post with the photo which said, “@hm u got us all wrong! And we ain't going for it! Straight up! Enough about y'all and more of what I see when I look at this photo. I see a Young King!! The ruler of the world, an untouchable Force that can never be denied! We as African Americans will always have to break barriers, prove people wrong and work even harder to prove we belong but guess what, that's what we love because the benefits at the end of the road are so beautiful!! #LiveLaughLove #LoveMyPeople

People all over the globe were so baffled that they started appealing the rest to boycott the Swedish retail company.

H&M, after facing the hurricane and receiving the thunderous backlash, tweeted an apology, they said, “We apologise to anyone this may have offended.” They also said, “We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print,". H&M has not only taken down the image but has also taken the product off the racks.

It is extremely sad and disheartening to see established brands who have the power of propagating the good and make a difference in the society stoop so low and act so negligent over topics that are inhuman and for which a section of the society has been fighting since the evolution of mankind.