by
Lisa Jean Francois
Asos, a major beauty and fashion retailer, is under fire for using a black model as a canvas to display the foundation options for white or fair-skinned women.
While Maybelline Fit Me does have color options for brown skin, Asos only showcases the lighter shades you see photographed above.
Foundation swatches are routinely used to show potential customers how the foundation will work on various skin tones. The model and the foundation are supposed to match. To use a black model when the brand is not selling products for brown skin, is not only unorthodox, it’s just plain strange.
It’s still not clear why Asos would opt to highlight the obvious lack of diversity in their color selection by using a black model, but one Twitter user explained it fairly eloquently:
The image is still being used on the ASOS site, however, the Asos customer service department has been tweeting the seemingly automated message to anyone who contacts the brand regarding this issue:
8 Responses
Hmm…let’s see. A black model got PAID to display make up on her arm in shades normally suited for white women. Hmmm…so this sistah is making money and…ppl mad…Hmmm…alrighty then….
Because it’s beautiful.
I just don’t see the sense in why they did this. Like when there are makeup swatches for lighter skin people, darker skin people cannot make an accurate analysis of whether or not it will fit their skin color, it is the same for this. Since she is a darker girl the makeup is going to look that way on darker skinned people. They really should’ve just hired a white person for this and just make darker skin makeup that’s it.
I see nothing wrong with this, I think it’s very creative.
THEY are saying we want you for this but NOT make it for you JUST spend your black.dollars here. They are using us to push a product THAT has NOTHING to do with us!
A lot of people didn’t read the article to find out what the issue was.
I’m confused as to why this is a problem? If they showed the brown shades on her, they might not show up as well! They should’ve just had a white arm showing the darker shades. Guys can we please stop complaining about every.darn.thing and focus on the things that matter.
stupid? Yes.
Offensive? ummm, that’s a bit of a stretch.