The photo of two side-by-side Baby K’Tan branded baby carriers has been trending on social media since yesterday. The organic carrier shows a black woman by herself, carrying a sleeping baby, and the regular carrier shows a white couple - mom and dad - with a sleeping baby.
Black women on social media are outraged. They believe that the Baby K'Tan company thought up the marketing campaign based on the stereotype that black women are mostly baby mamas and are usually not married, nor do they co-parent with their partners.
However, a small search online reveals more about the company, which is a small one with only 5 products. There is only one carrier box that has a couple on the cover. These other boxes have only moms or dads wearing the baby. One of the images shows the white woman with the man in the above picture, but this time, she is alone with her baby. See the photos and Baby K'Tan press statement below...
Baby K’Tan's Press Statement:
It has come to our attention that there is a misleading photo circulating around the internet. Our company takes these matters very seriously and wishes to address them without any further delay.
The photo in question shows two Baby K’tan Baby Carriers on the shelf at an unidentified retailer. One Baby K’tan product features an African American woman holding her baby, and the other Baby K’tan product features a Caucasian couple with their baby.
This portrayal has left many of our loyal patrons concerned that this is an unfair representation of African American families. Furthermore, the box bearing the African American woman was inaccurately priced lower than the box with the Caucasian couple. Let’s address these pressing matters head on:
1) We have a total of 5 different products, each featuring a different image on the front of the packaging. One box has the Caucasian couple on the front, and the other four boxes have individual mothers with their babies on the front (including African American and Caucasian women).
2) The Baby K’tan product featuring the African American woman is from our organic line which should actually be priced higher than the other product displayed.
3) The couple considered to be Caucasian is actually in fact an international couple, featuring a Caucasian mom and a Hispanic dad.
Our company was built and has prospered because of our focus on diversity and inclusion. We wholeheartedly reject any false, unfounded and baseless claims of discrimination as depicted in the above misrepresentation. We here at Baby K’tan fully support exposing any unfair and inaccurate stereotypes, racism and/or discrimination wherever it may exist.
We plan to continue including diverse parents, both individually and as couples, throughout our images. In fact, we are proud to have such wholesome and loving caregivers as the faces of our company.
UPDATE
A comment from FB below says there are no black dad in the marketing, but this image from a 2010 campaign proves otherwise. The picture is also on the package for the carrier in the last pic collage. I guess Baby KTan needs to up their publicity game for the AA community.
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Thanks Myne for going the extra mile to look into this. It's like we have become so racially sensitive lately. Not to deny that racism still exist, but not everything is racist and stereotypical.
ReplyDeleteThat still doesn't address that the only that has a family on it, is white....
ReplyDelete@Lucas - by your logic they need to also show pictures of a Chinese couple, a gay couple, and lesbian couple, a Spanish couple... when does it end? It's just a nice photo of two people. Why does everyone right away infer negatively? There is nothing wrong with showing an individual black woman - she's gorgeous. They have individual white women too.
ReplyDeleteHi. Thanks for this post, it is a real breath of fresh air!
ReplyDeleteI am closely related to the owner of Baby K'tan and I just want to mention that crazy ideas like this can and are causing serious harm to a hard working small business.
The owner of Baby K'tan is a single mom with a down syndrome child, and she is as accepting as they come. Her boyfriend is Hispanic to bring one tiny example!
I appreciate your to-the-point approach. More folks like you are needed to help bring some balance to a very unbalanced situation.
Once again thanks.
NYZ
This was intelligently written. You didn't have a knee-jerk reaction to an accusation, but rather researched the issue a bit. I am appalled at the utter stupidity of people who just assume something without using their brains to check it out. And we know what they say about people who “ASSUME,” don’t we? As a matter of fact I just went to the Baby K'tan Web Site, and they have, in their photo gallery a pic of a black or mixed race woman wearing a white baby! Does anyone have a problem with that? I surely don't. I don't understand this negative reaction. If the company were racist, they wouldn't have a photo shoot with black models at all. It makes no sense. Thank you for your balanced, intelligent view.
ReplyDeleteI just happened across your blog site and saw this post. I was curious, so I went to the Baby K'tan Web Site and clicked on "about the company." It seems they are a small company with a diverse staff. They seem to have some Hispanic people and possibly mixed race or Black, as well as Caucasian-looking people.
ReplyDeleteIf this were a racist company I don't think they'd have such a mix in their staff, nor would they even hire Black models for their photo shoots. This accusation makes NO sense to me. It's horrendous how a lie, if shouted out loudly enough and long enough, can be believed when people don't do their research and think for themselves.
Is this what America's coming to? Appalling.
Great Post! Black Father (with no wife pictured) pic.twitter.com/AQvpBrlzoJ
ReplyDeletecome on people. This was not a stereotyping. Who says she's even single. It's just a company hiring many diverse women to be on their box! They just chose the pics that came out the best. it's too bad that the store where the photograph was taken didn't have a third box on the shelf with the single white women on it and none of this would have even happened. It's one person making a ridiculous conclusion based on two boxes sitting on a shelf and everyone jumping to conclusions! If the black woman would have had a man behind her and the white woman didn't - people would have yelled- Oh look they think the black woman needs a man for support but the white woman can be independent. If they were racist, do you think they would have bothered to hire black models? I'm sure this alleged stereotype didn't even occur to them. It's the people shouting racism who are the ones who are racist. They want people to be color blind and see the world as equals. If I would have seen these boxes I would have seen just that. A woman with a baby. I wouldn't have distinguished between black and white. Companies try to be culturally sensitive by hiring different colored models and they get blasted. Damned if you do, damned if you don't! Hopefully, all this attention will just help sales for an amazing product that I have long used and loved!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone notice the baby is biracial?? The contrast between the very dark man and the light baby was a not so subtle marketing ploy. No company "accidentally" or "unintentionally" conveys any message. They pay a team of several people who have studied marketing and product placement for years, ample money to look at every detail from every possible angle. Down to the color of the model's shirt and the font used, no stone is left unturned. How could you believe something as obvious as skin color and race slip throught the cracks of their minds. The "Black Breeze" color made me giggle a little :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like Anonymous works for the company...
ReplyDeleteThe packaging only shows Whites and Blacks. Each Black person is shown on the packaging as single.