Clicks saga shows how companies must take greater care with their ads

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Clicks should know better than to show an insensitive advert, writes Lunice Johnston

Eff deputy president Floyd Shivambu, who has called on Clicks to identify the people behind a racist advertising campaign, speaks outside a Clicks store at Sandton City in Johannesburg on September 7 2020. Picture: THULANI MBELE

Clicks evoked widespread fury by showing an advertisement on its website for TRESemmé hair products, with pictures that described the hair of a black model as “dry and damaged” and “frizzy and dull”, contrasting with blonde Caucasian hair that was “fine and flat” and “normal”. One commentator told Gucci: “If you hire more black people and cultivate an environment where people on all levels of the company feel comfortable to speak up, incidents like this will be avoided.”

Members of the EFF, led by deputy president Floyd Shivambu, protested outside the Clicks retail store in Sandton City as part of a nationwide protest on September 7 2020. This comes after the retail group released a TRESemmé advert on its website that has been condemned by the EFF as racist. Meanwhile, police are investigating several incidents across the country where stores were vandalised.

Clicks needs to adopt a combination of solutions, one of which is to revisit the seven pillars of reputation management. These are based on four emotional indicators: trust, appreciation, admiration and good feelings. Measuring a company’s reputation is based on surveying respondents’ emotional reaction to the company’s products, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership and performance.

Clicks’ share price fall bears that out. And though the shares are already starting to bounce back, in the longer term they may fail to keep up with their peers in the retail sector if sales suffer as a result of consumer boycotts or influential fund managers believe the company is not fully committed to good reputation management.

 

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Business as usual says Clicks as EFF threatens to shut down storesClicks came under fire on Friday for an advert in a campaign run on its website where it published an image of African hair, which was labelled as dry and damaged, while an example of white hair is described as fine and flat.
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