Primark poster offends shoppers

A Primark poster in their flagship Birmingham store, has been causing controversy among some shoppers who have labelled the image as ‘racist’.

The popular clothing store have used an image of a black hand model picking up cotton to promote the quality of their clothing.

Some shoppers of Afro-Caribbean descent have taken offence due to the connotations of the picture as it can be deemed as negative and insulting due to the history of slavery.

Demi Adenji, a student at Matthew Boulton College said: “I go to Primark at least once a week and to see such a disrespectful image used is disappointing.

“There’s been no thought given to how black people will feel about the poster.”

The poster has been up in store for a few weeks yet there hasn’t been any action taken towards the image.

Shoppers have taken the matter to social media to raise awareness of the situation.

A TikTok user posted a video of the poster with a caption reading “Primark has set us back a few hundred years”.

Comments under the video consisted of user’s complaints and disappointment of the clothing store, one comment reading: “this is supposed to be the biggest Primark in the world and they’re moving like this”

Full time mum, Jeanne Fernanda said: “I didn’t even notice the poster so I can’t really say it offended me but that doesn’t mean it isn’t offensive and it shouldn’t still be there.”

Employees at the store were unable to give a comment regarding the image.

Tom from Primark Customer Service said: "there wont be any actions to take down the poster."

The outrage also stems from the fact that Primark produce their clothes from countries like China, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan but they used a black hand model to promote the authenticity of their cotton despite not producing it in African countries.

This is not the first time Primark has been called out for its use of insensitive products found in store.

In 2017, the clothing store produced a T-shirt featuring a slogan used in the popular tv series ‘The Walking Dead’.

The slogan read: “Eeny, Meeny,Miny,Moe” with a picture of a baseball bat covered in blood and wrapped in barbed wire.

Although the slogan stops there, the ending of the saying finishes with ‘Catch a n**** by his toes‘ and the image relates to the practise of assaulting black people in America.

Eeny, meeny, miny,moe was originally a children’s nursey rhyme but in 1888, people started incorporating the N-word into it to offend young African Americans in schools.

Shoppers found this product to be offensive and racist, so complaints were made to Primark chief executive.

A Primark representative replied to the complaints saying: “The T-shirt is licensed merchandise for The Walking Dead.

Any offense caused by its design was wholly unintentional and Primark sincerely apologises for this.”

Following the complaints, the company removed the products from all the stores that sold the T-shirt.