World News for Students of English

01-02-2022 15:00

People criticised Gucci and Adidas for the designs of new products.

For Gucci, a black balaclava jumper was the centre of the storm. The bright red lips on it looked like blackface which was a form of make-up used to stereotype black people. It dates back over 200 years. People criticised Adidas on Twitter for a white pair of shoes made to celebrate Black History Month.

This is not the first time that the Internet criticised a brand for its poor choice of design. Last year, H&M had to take down a picture of a black child. He was wearing a sweatshirt that said, ‘Coolest monkey in the jungle’.

Back in 2014, Zara made a striped T-shirt with what looked like the Star of David on it. It looked like clothing worn by Jews in Nazi concentration camps.

Difficult words: balaclava (a thing that you wear which covers your face or only some part of it), brand (the name of the maker of something: H&M, Zara, Gucci, Adidas), striped (with stripes – zebras have black and white stripes).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.