Bath & Body Works — the fragrance and candle shop everyone heads to while on holiday in the US — has apologised after releasing a candle with artwork that had a striking resemblance to a certain white supremacist group.
The Snowed In candle, which has now been removed from the store’s website and physical locations, featured something that might have been meant to look like a paper snowflake but instead bore a resemblance to the white hoods worn by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
For the unversed, the KKK is a white supremacist group known for racially-motivated hate crimes. The extremist group was known to have lynched Black people and committing other heinous hate crimes. Their distinctive white hoods are very well known in America, making it doubly strange that the brand wouldn’t have noticed the similarities.
In a statement provided to The Cut, a Bath & Body Works spokesperson said, “At Bath & Body Works, we are committed to listening to our teams and customers, and committed to fixing any mistakes we make — even those that are unintentional like this one. We apologise to anyone we’ve offended and are swiftly working to have this item removed and evaluating our process going forward.”
The candle was removed from stores within 48 hours after it caught the eye of netizens, who couldn’t believe their eyes, not that we blame them — who expects to see hate symbols when they’re going candle shopping?
Bath & Body Works joins a long list of corporations who’ve fumbled their artwork or advertisements — H&M, Zara, Balenciaga and Marks & Spencer are among the many brands who seem to have put little thought into their ad campaigns and ended up with highly offensive products.
