H&M Ad With Black Child Model In 'Coolest Monkey' Hoodie Makes People Go Slam off!

This was a huge marketing disaster -- that could have been easily avoided! 

Fashion retailer H&M sparked outrage this weekend over a photo posted of a black child model wearing a sweatshirt with the words "Coolest Monkey In The Jungle" etched across the front. Can you believe this?

One would assume H&M has tons of knowledgeable, racially sensitive employees with common sense. So how does an image like this even make it onto the website?

The term "monkey" has a long history as a racial slur. This isn't anything new! The image was highlighted by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow in a tweet:

The offensive photo was featured on H&M's U.K. page, and was labeled as a "printed hooded top." Social media did not waste time coming for H&M.

 Check out some of the comments:

But the plot thickens, fam. One user pointed out the sweatshirt pairings amongst other young male models on the site and what was revealed was a distasteful narrative that we think we'd all much rather be excluded from.

The user pointed to a photo that showed a white boy wearing a hoodie with the words “Mangrove Jungle Survival Expert.” According to HuffPost, a third option showed a white child in a navy-and-white animal print without any messaging. 

Basically, they didn't have to place the black child in the monkey sweatshirt.

Now, H&M calls themselves making an apology early Monday morning -- a rather lukewarm apology at that. 

"This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologize to anyone this may have offended," the retailer told the Daily News.

Thanks for that, H&M. But notice how no real explanation was given.... for placing a black child with a known racial slur! Most people are chalking this incident up to a mix of carelessness, cluelessness, and a lack of diversity in decision-making positions. But it's incidents like this that just shows why we need more opportunities for POC in those positions where the real decisions are made. 

Just think what a little diversity could have done to help avoid a disaster such as this. Meanwhile, this brotha took it upon himself to clean up H&M's mess.

Do better H&M. Tell us what you think about this one, fam.