In the past, large companies have released advertisements that viewers have accused of having racist leanings. On October 6, Dove released an ad on Facebook that was later deemed controversial and racist.

The ad was a three-second gif consisting of an African American woman wearing a brown shirt. She reached down and pulled her shirt up and off, revealing a Caucasian woman wearing a light shirt. Once again, the caucasian woman reached down and pulled her shirt up and off, revealing an Asian woman.

While many viewers perceived this ad as racist, Dove claimed that was not their intention. The viewers who saw this as racist thought the message of the ad was to show African Americans as “dirty” and Caucasians as “clean”.

“I feel like they’re trying to compare [African Americans] to [dirt],” freshman Hadde Luebke. “That’s very rude and offensive.”

Dove has dealt with similar racial controversies before, but they claim these opinions are far from their true views. Dove took the advertisement off Facebook. They later released apology statements on Facebook and Twitter to show their apologies.