Celebrate BHM By Relaxing Your Hair

[Kash]

i found this on contexts.org. i've read the comments on this and i still don't get the meaning of this ad... do you?erplexed
(here are a couple of the comments that were posted after the initial post.)

In honor of Black History Month I thought I’d post this Family Dollar ad from last February, sent in by Gloria K.:

As Gloria says, “I guess nothing honors African-American heritage quite like cream relaxer.” Indeed. If only they’d included some skin lighteners, we’d really be set.

As a person with super, extremely, extraordinarily curly-for-a-White-person hair, I am telling you: do not let anyone convince you that you should try these products to straighten your hair. This stuff will burn the **** out of your scalp. You will feel like it is on fire. I can't imagine that it doesn't feel about the same for Black women. This is a product invented to torture people.]

Gwen, as a fellow thick/curly hair, have you tried the olive oil leave in conditioner in the ethnic hair care (that sign on the store aisle always makes me cringe) section? It’s amazing. Also the wide, thick toothed combs that are sold there – they changed my life.

 

[Nayeli]

Wow! Ridiculous. And this is coming from a die-hard relaxer fan.

 

[Adaoba2012]

What kind of marketing tactic is this?

 

[BostonMaria]

Gwen, as a fellow thick/curly hair, have you tried the olive oil leave in conditioner in the ethnic hair care (that sign on the store aisle always makes me cringe) section? It’s amazing. Also the wide, thick toothed combs that are sold there – they changed my life.

OMG I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING :LACHE N:

 

[MizzBrit]

oh my..wow

 

[Eritreladiee]

giving relaxed women a black history month discount??

 

[nikki2229]

WTF?!nono:
Discount relaxers for Black History Month.... I've seen enough.

 

[~VicTorIAn~]

Gwen, as a fellow outrageously thick/curly hair, have you tried the olive oil leave in conditioner in the ethnic hair care (that sign on the store aisle always makes me cringe) section? It’s amazing. Also the wide, thick toothed combs that are sold there – they changed my life.

White ppl crack me up!

 

[TamedTresses]

Just when you thought you've seen it all.

 

[30something]

I came in here expecting too see something saying celebrate BHM by relaxing your hair Just the concept seems odd...


Looks like just a sale on black hair care products to me

To celebrate BHM have a sale on popular black hair products...

To bad its nothing I'd ever buy

 

[Kash]

White ppl crack me up!

i know that comment was a load of sugar.honey.ice.tea.

 

[Vashti]

That's crazy!

 

[Thann]

I see your point and all, but I don't find the ad offensive.

 

[Thann]

I came in here expecting too see something saying celebrate BHM by relaxing your hair Just the concept seems odd...


Looks like just a sale on black hair care products to me

To celebrate BHM have a sale on popular black hair products...

To bad its nothing I'd ever buy

Exactly the same impression I got.

 

[cutenss]

But you know that SOMEBODY is gonna go stock up

 

[natura87]

I see your point and all, but I don't find the ad offensive.

Its insensitive. It is telling people to "celebrate their heritage" by conforming to Western standards of beauty and insinuates that natural kinky coily hair has to be fixed, is imperfect and somehow less than 1A hair. Thats like me telling Wesley Snipes to celebrate Black History Month with some "Sammy Sosa skin cream".

 

[HairSupremacy]

If they would have added a discount for some fried chicken from Popeyes, that would have been nice.... Nothing celebrates the black heritage more than some fried chicken... and some watermelon of course. LOL.

 

[Kash]

Its insensitive. It is telling people to "celebrate their heritage" by conforming to Western standards of beauty and insinuates that natural kinky coily hair has to be fixed, is imperfect and somehow less than 1A hair. Thats like me telling Wesley Snipes to celebrate Black History Month with some "Sammy Sosa skin cream".

If they would have added a discount for some fried chicken from Popeyes, that would have been nice.... Nothing celebrates the black heritage more than some fried chicken... and some watermelon of course. LOL.

......

 

[WorkInProgress88]

...interesting

 

[Thann]

Its insensitive. It is telling people to "celebrate their heritage" by conforming to Western standards of beauty and insinuates that natural kinky coily hair has to be fixed, is imperfect and somehow less than 1A hair. Thats like me telling Wesley Snipes to celebrate Black History Month with some "Sammy Sosa skin cream".

I honestly see where your coming from, but I don't see a problem with the ad because its advertising products a large majority of black actually use. Its not like their setting a negative tone. If the majority of hair products blacks used happened to be $5 and $6 conditioners, they would more than likely be in this ad instead. Nothing about a relaxer being on sale in an ad that mentions Black History month is insensitive imo.

Relaxers aren't the only thing up for sale in this ad. They have a variety of Motions products displayed as well. This whole ad is pretty smart on their behalf. Everyone knows the spending power of black women (majority of who aren't on LHCF)...so to have ads geared directly towards us (using product the MAJORITY will buy) from a retailer and not the supplier, then even mentioning Black History Month (most retailers/companies wont/dont) is good business.

 

[DeenIsFirst]

I took this ad to mean: "Look, we know most of you are gonna buy this stuff anyway, and you're probably [silly] enough to call yourself celebrating Black history by buying more of it."

 

[Janet']

Well, Madame C.J. Walker and all...

 

[LaToya28]

I got a similar text message the other day...It said something like in honor of BHM, perm your nappy roots...stupid.

 

[I Am So Blessed]

no comment

 

[Sistaslick]

Why I thought this was about the forum black hair media.

Honestly, flip through ads during any month and you'll see the same relaxers on discount. Relaxers are forever on discount- this ain't special. Now if there were handing out free kits...

 

[JustKiya]

These threads always crack me up, with folks acting like the big, bad, white man up in his ivory tower of marketing decided to insult black people by putting stuff they would NEVER use on sale, when the reality is that the stores looked at which of their products directed towards black people sold the most, and put those on sale.

It amuses me that people act like white people are the main ones telling us that our natural hair is 'ugly', 'unprofessional', 'man-deterrent' and 'dykish'.

If we didn't buy relaxers and other hair products to the tune of a couple billion dollars a year, they wouldn't discount them during black history month. Follow the money - that's what marketers do.

And the money tells them that putting relaxers on sale will make more money.

 

[NIN4eva]

I won't lie, if it were S Curl Moisturizer (or anything actually useful) on sale I'd buy it by the case...

 

[beans4reezy]

Thats like me telling Wesley Snipes to celebrate Black History Month with some "Sammy Sosa skin cream".

Girl, stop!!

 

[Sistaslick]

These threads always crack me up, with folks acting like the big, bad, white man up in his ivory tower of marketing decided to insult black people by putting stuff they would NEVER use on sale, when the reality is that the stores looked at which of their products directed towards black people sold the most, and put those on sale.

It amuses me that people act like white people are the main ones telling us that our natural hair is 'ugly', 'unprofessional', 'man-deterrent' and 'dykish'.

If we didn't buy relaxers and other hair products to the tune of a couple billion dollars a year, they wouldn't discount them during black history month. Follow the money - that's what marketers do.

And the money tells them that putting relaxers on sale will make more money.

Thank you!

If that store sold packs of weave... then the Yaki, Kanekalon, and Toyota-kalon would be on sale too.

 

[Precious_P]

I saw this same display at Kroger earlier today. I just looked at it like "What does a sale on black hair care products have to do with black history month"? I wasn't offended. I just laughed at the tactic they used to make a sale.