The Weeknd isn’t monkeying around — he’s through with H&M.
The musician, who had a partnership with H&M, said Monday that he was severing ties with the clothing company, after it ran an ad featuring a black child wearing a hooded sweatshirt reading, “Coolest monkey in the jungle.”
In a tweet Monday, The Weeknd said that he was “shocked and embarrassed” by the image, which he was “deeply offended” by.
“Woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore…,” the musician wrote.
The Weeknd wasn’t the only one to take offense to the ad. H&M has caught major heat over the last couple of days for the image. New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, for one, asked the company over Twitter, “have you lost your damned minds?!?!?!”
The company issued an apology for the ad Monday, saying that in addition to removing the image from its platform it had also removed the garment itself from its inventory.
“We understand that many people are upset about the image. We, who work at H&M, can only agree. We are deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print,” H&M said. “Therefore, we have not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering globally.”
The company continued, “It is obvious that our routines have not been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We will thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”
woke up this morning shocked and embarrassed by this photo. i’m deeply offended and will not be working with @hm anymore… pic.twitter.com/P3023iYzAb
— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) January 8, 2018