Brazilian Company Uses A Black Empowerment Slogan to Sell Toilet Paper

This might be the grossest case of cultural appropriation yet. In Brazil, a toilet paper company launched a line of BLACK toilet paper and in the effort to make people want to buy it, they used the black empowerment slogan “Black is Beautiful.”

That’s right, they used the slogan “Black is Beautiful” to try to sell a roll of TOILET PAPER. Shame on them.

Even worse, the ad features a white redheaded model, Marina Ruy Barbosa, cleverly covered in black toilet paper and holding a roll in her hand.  

The use of the slogan feels a little tongue in cheek too, like they’re implying that black is “beautiful” only for toilet paper rolls. Speaking of which -- black toilet paper, we're not even sure we get that. You? 

The original slogan “Black is Beautiful” was created to uplift black communities back in the 1960s. Steve Biko used it as part of the Black Consciousness Movement and it’s been used as a term of empowerment ever since. 

Black IS beautiful, but it hasn’t often been seen that way by all, not just in the U.S. but also in many other countries where Africans were enslaved -- like Brazil, where this ad was made. 

The toilet paper was launched by a Sao Paulo company, Santher. It’s called Personal VIP Black toilet paper. Since the controversy around the slogan, they’ve removed the words and apologized via a Facebook post.

“We would like to clarify that we have never had any intention of provoking a racial discussion through the launch of our Personal VIP Black toilet paper,” the company wrote. They apologized for “the possibly mistaken association of the phrase adopted by the black movement, which we respect and admire so much.”

What do you think?