When keeping it inclusive goes wrong: popular Korean beauty and fashion company Stylenanda’s heart was likely in the right place when it attempted to show diversity in a nail polish ad by placing a brown hand next to a much paler one. But something was a little ... off.
If you’re still guessing what’s wrong and happen to be a brown-skinned person, look at the palms of your hands (Deputy Managing Editor Yesha Callahan admits she had to, after looking at this mess). Not all one shade, right?
Admittedly, we have no idea how many brown-skinned models are working in the Korean modeling industry, but rather than hire a brown-skinned model, Stylenanda attempted to make their ad more diverse by simply painting a hand brown—on both sides. The effect is surreal and more than a little bit hilarious; who knew you could blackface a manicure?
Come on, Stylenanda. We applaud your attempts to diversify, but not like this.
And in the end, it’s really a shame that the effect of the ill-advised brown makeup is so distracting because that orange ombre manicure was actually kind of fly.