While their latest tweeted Gap Kids X ED clothing ad had supposedly good intentions of being race-inclusive and punting girl power with the tagline ‘Girls can do anything’, the way the young models – all acrobats in real-life – were made to pose has caused much ire in social media land for being racially insensitive, according to Time .
Why? Well, Vibe described the token black girl in the ad as “a prop” while the three white girls were allowed to actively pose.
Unsurprisingly, the ad has since been pulled, with the ad tweet deleted and an official apology released from Gap, but it’s not a case of out of sight, out of mind. Now that the ad is gone, the sentiment seems to be that Gap was too quick to act. Here are a few of the tweets currently doing the rounds…
Racial GAP?
— IN THE NOW (@INTHENOWRT) April 4, 2016
New AD for @GAPKIDS divides people online #GapKidsxEDhttps://t.co/xJFS4eyQjB
GAP Kids pulls and apologized for ad people thought racist. Nobody blinked at last years ad.https://t.co/RFjSmhZrcU pic.twitter.com/IqTXihbUE8
— adland ® (@adland) April 7, 2016
The new @Gap ad being criticized as racist!? What do you think? @trish_regan and @deneenborelli discuss #TrishIntelhttps://t.co/dhw0jHouSq
— Trish Regan Intel (@TrishIntel) April 5, 2016
Click here for the Huffington Post's overview of why backlash on the ad is complicated, and share your thoughts below…
