woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore… pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018
Singer The Weeknd has severed his business ties with H&M after the European clothing giant ran an advertisement on its UK website featuring a black boy wearing a hoodie with the words “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle”.
On Monday afternoon Weeknd tweeted: “woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore…”
H&M, which is based in Sweden, apologized and removed the advertisement on Sunday. But that was not enough for Weeknd and others who remain highly offended by the racist advertising gimmick.
“This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended,” the company told the NY Daily News.
Two other hoodies from the same company featured white boy models, including one labeled a jungle “survival expert.”