Nivea has removed a video from its Facebook page that was widely criticised for stigmatising women in Singapore with dark underarm skin.
The film promoting NIVEA Extra white & firm Q10 deodorant featured a girl who was shunned by people young and old because of the colour of her arm pits.
It was deleted this afternoon after a strong response from women who objected to the message it was portraying.
Nivea confirmed that it had removed the offending video, which was criticised by many on Nivea’s Facebook fan page as well as gender equality group AWARE Singapore.
AWARE in a Facebook post said yesterday: “Apparently having the ‘wrong’ colour of armpit makes you unfit to interact with other human beings. This is supposedly humour – but is promoting shame and insecurity about our bodies a laughing matter? Some commenters let NIVEA know about their objections – good on them!”
The brand, which is owned by German pharmaceuticals giant Beiersdorf, said that it is preparing a statement about the video. It remains unclear whether the film was created in-house or through an agency. Nivea said that it was unable to provide further information until the official release was ready.
Nivea is running a number of promotions for this brand of deodorant on its Facebook page, backed by local celebrities.
