Walmart apologizes for racial slur on marketplace listing
The retailer is dealing with backlash after screenshots surfaced of a wig cap with an offensive product description.
Curated content can be great—but it can also wreak havoc on your organization’s reputation.
Such is the lesson Walmart is learning after a after third-party vendor posted an item for sale on the retailer’s marketplace, and used a racial slur in the product’s listing.
The product in question was a wig cap whose description noted the color as “n—– brown.”
This tweet captures much of the outrage on social media that followed:
This is WALMART’S RACIST DESCRIPTION OF THE “JAGAZI’S NATURAL FULL CAP WEAVING NET WIG CAP‼️THEY WILL NEVER GET MY MONEY AGAIN‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/Mx24prrSww
— CastTheNet (@AmyOliviaWilli2) July 17, 2017
The ad — complete with the familiar Walmart colors and typography — raced around the Web, a racial flub that was a setback for a company that’s aggressively trying to expand online sales.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
