Popular fashion brand slammed for uploading whitewashed 'Barbie' photo of a Black model

Hannah Millington
·2 min read
an ai edited barbiefied photo of five models in pink
Fashion brand slammed for whitewashing model picsboandtee
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With Barbie released in cinemas on Friday 21 July, many have been sporting their best pink outfits and getting into the 'life in plastic, it's fantastic' vibe – and that includes brands, marketing and fashion trends galore (yep, Barbiecore). But one women's activewear brand – Bo+Tee – has more than missed the mark, after posting a photo of its models not only Barbiefied, but whitewashed.

The now-deleted post on Bo+Tee's Instagram account – which has 1.1 million followers – featured 'before' and 'after' images of five models dressed in pink, using AI effects to edit the second. In response, many followers flagged that the results were concerning, given that one Black model's skin colour was changed to the extent that she appeared white.

The caption on the since-deleted image initially read: "Before movie selfies with the girls be like" with the pink nails and eyes emojis. This 'after' version of the image also shows the models to all have blonde hair, some of their bodies' tweaked.

Social media users have since shared screenshots of the original post, which show a brand's spokesperson commenting at the time: "You should've used actual people than AI. This just looks creepy", to which @boandtee replied: "We aim to use AI in a new and fun way to showcase our pink edit, just in time for the launch of the Barbie movie! Thank you for your feedback and we will take this into consideration for future posts."

Another user flagged, "Lol at the fact that it's copy and paste of the same reply from the company instead of responding to the negative comments directly.... Using AI to handle customer care now too?"

The misstep was also spotlighted on The Shade Borough's Instagram account, where one person commented, "If A.I is responsible for the edit, then it’s clearly learnt racism from us humans which proves the problem within society! #Madness" and another added "Would love to see what excuse they give for this". Many also promised to stop buying from Bo+Tee.

Over on Twitter, users also called out the company with the hashtag #boandtee. One wrote, "Whoever decided to upload this whitewashed ai version really f*cked up their brand #boandtee" while another said: "Absolutely disgusting. Now they are using this moment to get more engagement for their stupid launch".

Cosmopolitan UK has contacted Bo+Tee for comment


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