Bath & Body Works Removes "Unintentional" Offensive KKK Candle From Its Shelves
The company was initially called out on social media for selling the triggering candle.
Published Oct. 12 2024, 12:47 p.m. ET
Retailer Bath & Body Works has long been part of mall culture. The store is known for its nostalgic scents like Moonlight Path, Champagne Toast, and, of course, Warm Vanilla Sugar. It's also a holiday season staple for many who want a candle or plug-in scent to boost their homes during the holiday season.
However, no one will be using one of the store's recent controversial scents it debuted ahead of the 2024 winter holidays.
In October 2024, Bath & Body Works released a candle featuring its new "Snowed In" scent. The candle was designed with a red background and white snowflakes across the bottom. The snowflakes didn't sit well with the company's consumers, as many felt it resembled the hoods worn by the Ku Klux Klan, aka the KKK.
Bath & Body Works has addressed the offensive candle and has taken other measures to ensure they've understood the error. Here's what they've said about the controversy.
Bath & Body Works' team publicly apologized for its "unintentional" KKK candle.
On Oct. 10, Bath & Body Works' spokesperson addressed the backlash about their snowfall candle. They stated to TMZ that the candle wasn't intentionally created to mimick the KKK's hoods and were actively working on getting the candles removed from all of Bath & Body Works' shelves.
"We are committed to listening to our teams and customers and committed to fixing any mistakes we make—even those that are unintentional like this one," the spokesperson said. "We apologize to anyone we’ve offended and are swiftly working to have this item removed and [are] evaluating our process [going] forward."
The company also removed the snowfall candle from its e-commerce site. However, for some customers, the damage was already done.
Bath & Body Works' former consumers still want the brand canceled despite its apology for the offensive candle.
Before Bath & Body Works addressed its controversy, the internet virtually dragged the company. The candle created plenty of discourse on social media, with many brand followers scolding them for not realizing the error before the item had already been in stock on its stores and website.
"How did a whole marketing team look at this and think “yeah, that’s it” and not one person noticed the resemblance??" one commenter asked underneath a TikTok post about the candle.
"See my question is even if it was unintentional how did none of their many adult brains on the design team not notice that it looked like that?" another scolded.
"Noticed immediately," a third user declared.
While the flub was obvious to many, some social media users stated they didn't understand the association between the KKK hoods and the snowflakes on the candle.
"I saw this and thought it was a snowflake and later got on TikTok and saw all these videos," one commenter admitted.
"It looks like a paper snowflake we made as kids but I also see why they pulled it," another noted.
Though the discourse about the snowflakes continued even after Bath & Body Works' apology, this isn't the first time the company has been involved in a scandal that deeply affected its Black consumers.
In 2022, the brand was slammed for its Black History Month collection. The collection included "limited edition" goods that were repackaged in Kente-cloth-inspired designs and were immediately seen as tacky and offensive to the Black community.
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