Late last week, Johnson and Johnson brand Band-Aid announced that they would finally offer bandages in darker skin tones. It was a long time coming, and many people are asking what took them so long. They made the announcement on their Instagram page along with saying they’ll make an unspecified donation to Black Lives Matter. Here’s the caption they put on the photo above.
We hear you. We see you. We’re listening to you.
We stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues, collaborators and community in the fight against racism, violence and injustice. We are committed to taking actions to create tangible change for the Black community.
We are committed to launching a range of bandages in light, medium and deep shades of Brown and Black skin tones that embrace the beauty of diverse skin. We are dedicated to inclusivity and providing the best healing solutions, better representing you.
In addition, we will be making a donation to @blklivesmatter. We promise that this is just the first among many steps together in the fight against systemic racism.
We can, we must and we will do better.
Some of the top comments are along the lines of “better late than never” and “finally.” It’s about time, but this is a marketing ploy by J&J. Plus, I bet they’re feeling competition from brands that actually are inclusive, like when major cosmetics companies offered more foundation shades after Fenty was so successful. (Thanks to Kaiser for pointing that out to me.) There are a couple of bandage brands that have had bandages in darker skin tones for years. The ones I found were Trucolour bandages, which are available at Target, and Browndages, in select stores and online although the adult Browndages are sold out. The do have bandages left for kids with cute illustrations on them.
This is an ad Bandaid posted just one month ago, May 15th, for their new skin-flex Bandaids. They have inclusive ads, photos and videos on their Instagram but the Bandaids don’t even match the skin tone of the stars in their ads, and no one worked to change that.
On this video, one of the top comments from eight weeks ago reads: “Where are your bandaids for diverse skin tones? 🙄” They knew.
Dont celebrate BandAid’s attempt at diversity inclusion. Everyone is acting like this is so groundbreaking. TruColour has been around since 2014, been in Targets around the country for 2 years AND have black people on their leadership team. So plz support the ORIGNALS #TruColour pic.twitter.com/edfVEpwbdN
— allyson🖤wonderland (@helloallys0n) June 12, 2020
Plus these changes don’t solve any real issues so it’s like……????
— tired af (@danielletaco) June 12, 2020
Somebody reposted the shade room talking about Band-aids new expanded shades of Bandaids instead of just shouting out a black owned bandaid line🙄 …@browndages pic.twitter.com/Qr4HrNDPLs
— 🤍 (@anomalouslover) June 12, 2020
It truly stuns me that only now in 2020 are so many brands becoming more inclusive. They’re acting as though the black community wasn’t marginalized and oppressed before George Floyd’s death. It’s puzzling.
these companies are led by individuals with the personality type of of: i ask you if the sky is purple enough you will agree and back down…You can tell.me it’s blue…buuuut I want my way and I will bombard you with the same question until I get my way instead of facing the truth…. You know that it has been brought to their attention decades ago, but the CeOs never thought it was cost effective, and why do it if people need a band aid anyways, they won’t be picky….it’s just a bunch of bs self absorbed asses who value money and now want a good PR segment when they all suck!
When I was a high school librarian, I only bought Band-Aids in cartoon characters because their “flesh tone” bandages didn’t match any of the kids at my 100% Black student population school. This was recognized decades ago, what took so long?
Those are much more fun anyhow, I even buy colorful ones now myself sometimes but I definitely understand people wanting or needing them to be unnoticeable though too. This is true, better late than never but jeez it took all THIS for change. Why does something so simple as equality have to be so damn hard for some people understand?
I never understood why they didn’t just make them clear?
Glad they FINALLY did this, but I’ll be checking out the TruColors one next time I need to purchase.
A year or so back a video was going around of a guy wearing a bandage in his skin colour for the first time and getting emotional about it. The should be embarrassed it’s taken them until now and THIS is why diversity in the boardroom (and everywhere below) matters.
Yes. I found my first skin-toned band-aid in 2005 (and I’m almost positive they were actually Band-Aid) and I cried right there in Walgreen’s. Until that moment, I hadn’t even realized that they were were SUPPOSED to match my skin. It was eye opening…and then I basically never saw them in the store again.
Personally, I’ve never given thought about bandages matching my skin, stockings and makeup- definitely, but hey I guess It’s a win
For f#### real! I’ve always hated how the ” nude” stood out so sharply.
I’ve always been quite a bit lighter than band aid colored, and while I know this news isn’t for me, this is great news.
Day late and a dollar though, Johnson and Johnson. It’s not like the existence of darker skin is a novel phenomenon in America.
I wasn’t aware of the other inclusive brands but as a melanated person, I’m excited about the J&J bandages. I also agree that it’s about f—ing time! They waited until 2020?!
I bet they find it is not as economically beneficial to produce five different colors of bandages and then have to figure out how to quietly pull them back. I agree with the comment above that they should have just made all bandages clear. Or they could have shouted out the inclusive brand like the tweet in the article said but that probably would have read as “not our problem” so maybe they’re taking one for the team in the Band-Aid department so other J&J brands don’t suffer?