Clicks has found itself on the wrong side of social media users in South Africa after haircare categories on their website went viral.
The page has since been removed by the company, but screenshots have been shared widely.
The screenshots show various haircare categories, such as “dry and damaged hair”, “frizzy and dull hair”, and “normal hair”, displayed on the Clicks website.
Notably, the categories for damaged and dull hair include images of black women’s hair. Meanwhile, the “normal hair” category shows a white woman’s hair.
After these images were shared, Clicks became the top trend on South African Twitter. Users mentioned the brand in over 23 500 tweets at the time of writing.
Clicks has since issued an apology, saying that it goes against their advocacy for natural hair.
The company also said that it does not condone racism. Clicks published the apology on its Facebook page too.
In response to the issue, some users have promised to boycott the brand.
Other users asked for more accountability, saying that the incident reflects a lack of diversity on the teams responsible for this advertising.
Meanwhile, others posted images of black women’s hair with positive adjectives rather than the negative ones included in the Clicks listing.
The hashtag #RacismMustFall also began trending in response to the hair listing.
