Protests have broken out in South Africa after a local department store carried ads which denigrated Black hair while extolling white hair.

CNN reports the advertisements were from American haircare brand TRESemmé and were shown at Clicks, a popular department store with hundreds of locations in South Africa.

mhmmm idk hey… pic.twitter.com/a1VgxThTBh

— aretlhabetse. (@pelomasebe) September 3, 2020

The advertisements were found both in physical stores and on the Clicks website. They featured a photo of a Black woman's hair next to the words "Dry & Damaged Hair" and "Frizzy & Dull Hair."

Under the photo of the Black woman was a photo of a white woman with blonde hair with the words "Fine & Flat Hair" and "Normal Hair."

Photos of the ads side by side caused widespread outrage across the country and online. Under one of the Twitter posts calling out the ad, Clicks responded directly, apologizing for it and vowing to take all of them down.

"Hi, thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologise for the offense this has caused. We have removed the images and will ensure that this does not happen again," the company wrote in a statement.

They later followed that message up with another tweet under the photo.

"We would like to issue an unequivocal apology. We have removed the images, which go against everything we believe in. We are strong advocates of natural hair and are deeply sorry we have offended our natural hair community. We will put in place stricter measures on our website," the second statement said.

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