Black model in controversial Dove ad says it was not racist

The model who starred in Dove’s recent controversial ad campaign has spoken out —saying the body wash ad that showed her, a black woman, taking off her shirt to reveal a white woman, was “misinterpreted.”

Dove removed the three-second video ad from Facebook this weekend and apologized that they “missed the mark” representing women of color. But the woman of color represented in the video, model Lola Ogunyemi, a Nigerian who grew up in Atlanta, said her experience with the Dove campaign was “positive” and the short clip of the ad didn’t convey the context.

Lola Ogunyemi penned an article in The Guardian about her experience as a model who jumped at the chance “to represent my dark-skinned sisters in a global beauty brand.”

“I’ve grown up very aware of society’s opinion that dark-skinned people, especially women, would look better if our skin were lighter,” she wrote. “I know that the beauty industry has fueled this opinion with its long history of presenting lighter, mixed-race or white models as the beauty standard.”

Ogunyemi said she had “been excited to be a part of the commercial and promote the strength and beauty of my race.” She said she was “over the moon” when the 13-second ad aired on Facebook and the full 30-second ad aired in the U.S.

“I loved it, and everyone around me seemed to as well,” she said. “I think the full TV edit does a much better job of making the campaign’s message loud and clear.”

Then this weekend, Ogunyemi saw the short 3-second Gif on Facebook when a friend messaged her. “I went online and discovered I had become the unwitting poster child for racist advertising,” she wrote.

Hashtags such as #DonewithDove and #DoveisRacist gained steam on Twitter this weekend, many with Ogunyemi’s face featured.

The ad was compared many times on Twitter to racist soap advertising in the early 1900s.

Ogunyemi said all the initial fury and anger sparked from the advertisement’s three-second clip was “justified,” but wished consumers could have seen the advertisement in full context before judging.

“I can see how the snapshots that are circulating the web have been misinterpreted, considering the fact that Dove has faced a backlash in the past for the exact same issue,” she wrote.

Yesterday, Dove expanded on their apology saying the three-second ad “did not represent the diversity of real beauty.”

Ogunyemi said that Dove was right to apologize, but wishes they would have expanded more on their creative vision behind the advertisement.

“They could have also defended their creative vision, and their choice to include me, an unequivocally dark-skinned black woman, as a face of their campaign,” she wrote. “ I am not just some silent victim of a mistaken beauty campaign. I am strong, I am beautiful, and I will not be erased.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2017 at 7:55 AM with the headline "Black model in controversial Dove ad says it was not racist."