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GAP Apologizes For Racist Commercial: Watch Ellen DeGeneres And Le Petit Cirque’s Controversial Ad For GapKids x ED

By Christopher Brown
Published on: 09:09 PST, Apr 5, 2016

Gap has officially issued an apology for their new ad, which featured Ellen DeGeneres’ new children’s line for Gap called GapKids x ED.

The Inquisitr reported that the gap commercial was deemed racist as it was scrutinized on Twitter.

Gap apologized for the commercial which many saw as racist. Via Forturne Magazine, Gap spokeswoman, Debbie Felix, gave the apology to the public.

“As a brand with a proud 46 year history of championing diversity and inclusivity, we appreciate the conversation that has taken place and are sorry to anyone we’ve offended.”

Ironically, the motif of the Gap commercial and the GapKids x ED campaign, altogether, is to send positive messages that empower girls everywhere, of every demographic.

The quarrel many had with the GAP was how the lone black girl, among an all white cast, in the video was portrayed as motionless and did not utter a single line of dialogue throughout the entire commercial.

Many also argued that the black girl in the ad was mainly being used as a mere prop in comparison to the roles that the white girls played in the ad — thus demanding an apology from Gap.

The all-girls group, Le PeTiT CirqUe, identifies themselves as the world’s only “all humanitarian kid circus.” All of the clothing worn by the gymnasts in the Gap ad is a part of the line which is now apologetic.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154061959414919&set=a.45228439918.69571.735604918&type=3&permPage=1

According to their Facebook Page, the group was founded by retired talent agent, Nathalie Gaulthier. The Los Angeles-based cirque training program is a touring production company with a focus on children.

Their mission statement, “inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold by providing life-changing experiences and solutions to the unique challenges girls face.”

Watch The GAP Ad Everyone Is Calling Racist Below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=gdxXBqdfWME

On the contrary, other Twitter users don’t see any racism in the GAP ad, and calling the need for GAP to apologize totally unnecessary,

In 2013 GAP spoke out against racism when one of their Subway Ads featuring a Sikh model was defaced with virulent racist graffiti.

The Huffington Post noted that GAP handled the situation prolifically by addressing the incident immediately requesting the location of the defaced ad for removal and subsequently changed their company Twitter handle image to the Sikh model.

GAP’s beliefs as a company and history handling instances of racism so far appear to be inconsistent with the accusations of their latest ad being racist.

Nevertheless, Gap issued a swift apology.

Users have also pointed out an old GAP ad where the roles of the “arm-rest pose” were fully reversed.

The public warranted no apology from GAP nor did GAP face any backlash.

Is There A Double Standard For Racism? Should GAP Have Apologized?

Huff Post writer, Zeba Blay, commented on why the “racist” GAP ad is so complicated and why GAP needed to apologize regardless especially for non-black people, who can be “oblivious to instances of racial insensitivity at times”

Do you think that GAP shouldn’t have had to apologize for the “racist” ad?

[Image via YouTube]

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