Who: Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Ltd
Where: United Kingdom
When: 20 August 2025
Law stated as at: 22 September 2025
What happened:
The ASA has upheld a complaint that an ad for shower gel included a racial stereotype and was therefore likely to cause serious offence.
The ad featured two models with black skin and one model with white skin. The black skin was shown as itchy, dry and cracked in the “before” scenes, accompanied by a voiceover that stated, “To those who might scratch day and night. To those whose skin will feel dried out even by water”. The white skin was shown as smoother after using the product in the “after” scenes. At the end of the ad, on-screen text and the voiceover stated, “RELIEF COULD BE AS SIMPLE AS A SHOWER”.
Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Ltd said that featuring models with varied backgrounds, skin tones and ethnicities was part of its commitment to diversity. It featured different models in a “before and after” scenario to show that its product was suitable and effective for all, rather than as a comparison based on race or ethnicity.
The ASA accepted Colgate-Palmolive’s points, but considered that the structure of the ad suggested that the black skin was problematic and uncomfortable, while the white skin was successfully improved, with any problems resolved, by using the product. The ASA considered that it could be interpreted as suggesting that white skin was superior to black skin. While acknowledging that the message might not have been intended, the ASA still considered that the ad was likely to reinforce negative and offensive racial stereotypes.
Why this matters:
This ruling is an example of where creative copy can cause serious offence even without intent. It shows that the overall narrative and sequencing of images (for example, “before/after”) can imply racial hierarchy. In beauty ads, where transformation is a common scenario, marketers should avoid storylines or juxtapositions that could suggest that one skin tone or other ethnic characteristic is “problematic” and another is “ideal”. It should be the role of someone within the advertiser’s marketing or legal teams to consider proposed ad copy from such a perspective and to consider all the possible ways an ad could be interpreted by its likely audience.
