Holy backlash, Batman!
Chalk this one up to a failed experiment.
Last Saturday – if you’re on the MenEssentials customer newsletter mailing list, you would have found it in your Inbox – we sent out an offer that appears to the left. The thought behind it was innocent enough: let’s celebrate the historic occasion of the first African American president-elect by reducing for one weekend the price of our only branded product line, African Male by MenEssentials – which also happens to be the first luxury skin care and grooming range that targets Black men. We’ve been selling African Male since 2006 and it has a solid following among men of all cultural origins. Nice tie-in. Or so we naively thought.
Our newsletter wasn’t even finished cycling through its mail-out sequence when the first of many venomous messages appeared in response. Here’s one:
Regarding your Ad [sic] about the first "African Male President," remember he is half European [sic] male. I refuse to continue doing business with your company since you support that empty suit, Barack Obama, ol' "B.O." Remember who use [sic] your company – people with money, Conservatives. The bums and criminals who turned out to vote for that Bastard [sic] don't have any money. See ya later, I'm going somewhere else.
And another:
Talk about discrimination/racism. Come on, you have to be kidding.
One more, from Australia:
I feel that your Afro [sic] promotion is tasteless and a form of reverse prejudice. We are all one so why segregate Blacks from Whites? I find it patronising.
Let’s ignore for a moment the bizarre yet apparently pervasive belief that White men are somehow forbidden to purchase glycerin citrus soap or aloe shave gel marketed under a brand called African Male. Also dispense with the fact that our products are made on the African continent, by Africans (hence, the name), as part of an international antipoverty program. Consider instead the backlash our promotion sparked, and what it really means.
We measure any society, in part, by the way in which it treats its minorities. It’s a singular event that the USA has a Black president-elect. This is the most powerful and unique job on the planet. For the first time, it has been entrusted to a man of color. We wanted to honor that occasion.
No one can deny the historic nature of the election’s outcome. Had we honored Hillary Clinton instead as the first female president, or Sarah Palin as the first female vice president, and offered a free women’s fragrance (which we have in considerable volume at our warehouse: long story), would that have been sexist? Had we celebrated John McCain’s victory with a tongue-in-cheek discount on anti-aging products, would that have been ageist? Does a promotion involving hair care products exclude the bald? Or shave products, a deliberate snub of the bearded? Seriously?
The sale itself was for our African Male by MenEssentials product line, which has been available for two years and which has always targeted African American men. Targeted, but in fact enjoyed by any man with skin. If you read our customer reviews, you’ll see that African Male products have a substantial following among men of all skin types and colors. The sale didn’t exclude anyone – we didn’t say it was for Blacks only, just as our annual Thanksgiving sale isn’t for Whites only, even though that holiday was introduced by White European settlers and institutionalized by Puritan Christians.
There is no harm, whatsoever, in highlighting the achievement of any cultural community, particularly one of this significance – which is, in truth, an achievement all Americans can claim with pride. Canada has never elected a Black prime minister. Neither has Britain, or Australia, or any other Western democracy. In spite of our (often boastful) love of multiculturalism, it took the United States of America to show the rest of us how it’s done.
So my question to you is this: was it the fact that we offered a discount on our product line, or was it that we noted the significance of the first African-American president-elect, that upset and offended? If it’s the former, hey, we’ll have other sales for a broader range of products – US Thanksgiving is two weeks away. If it’s the latter, then the deeper question is: why?
