‘It’s saying black skin is dirty and white is clean’: Transgender model Munroe Bergdorf hits out at Dove advert showing a black woman ‘becoming white’ as the soap firm pulls the promo

Dove is facing a furious backlash after airing a ‘racially insensitive’ advert depicting a black woman appearing to take off her shirt and skin to become a white woman.

The beauty giant is the source of debate this morning, with transgender model Munroe Bergdorf questioning whether its latest campaign was deliberately attempting to spark outrage.

Presenters Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan echoed her sentiments, with Piers questioning whether Dove had launched the controversial campaign for publicity.

The model – who was sacked by L’Oreal after labeling ‘all white people’ racist – told Good Morning Britain: ‘There is a precedent in the beauty industry that white is pure and light and fresh and black isn’t.’

In the now deleted picture, the four-panel Dove shot shows a black woman taking off a brown shirt and revealing herself to be a white woman in an off-white shirt.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Bergdorf said Dove ‘missed the mark’ with its advert and needed to look at the team behind its marketing campaigns.

She said: ‘This harks back to nineteenth-century feelings, to adverts where children are depicted as black, scrubbing off their blackness and turning white.

‘It makes you wonder if the crew is as diverse as the cast. There is a precedent in the beauty industry that white is pure and light and fresh and black isn’t.

‘They had a bottle that said from normal to dark skin – so what is normal? Why are they getting it wrong so many times? It makes you think, are they doing it on purpose?’

Bergdorf became the first trans woman to appear in a L’Oreal Paris UK campaign when she was cast as part of a diversity initiative.

However, the cosmetics giant terminated her contract after claiming the model was at odds with their values of ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’.

Bergdorf said the advert was ‘racially insensitive’.

And Piers added: ‘I thought what on earth was going through the minds of Dove…the imagery was just so stark and so obviously liable to cause offense.

‘It does make you a bit cynical and wonders if Dove is doing this to get publicity.’

Bergdorf said: ‘I think there is a bit more to it than just a little bit of insensitivity – to go viral.’

Susanna added: ‘This is so ironic because Dove tries to project this image that they’re about embracing difference, this has been part of their marketing strategy and in doing so they are stumbling at every block.’

Bergdorf later told Sky: ‘Who is getting it wrong consistently and why is it the bias with white skin being the final product?

‘It doesn’t make sense. And it fits the narrative of the beauty industry discriminating against women of colour …

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