Skincare brand apologise for referencing a school shooting in a new ad

Skincare brand Bioré and content creator Cecilee Max-Brown have come under fire after posting a branded TikTok that spoke about school shootings. Max-Brown posted a now deleted TikTok to her account last week in collaboration with Bioré for their pore strips. The TikTok was created for mental health awareness month, with Bioré asking creators and consumers to share what they are ‘stripping away’. In the TikTok, Max-Brown spoke about her experience of surviving a school shooting and told viewers that in collaboration with Bioré she was ‘stripping away’ anxiety. ‘We want you to get it all out,’ referring to Bioré’s mental health campaign, she adds: ‘not only what’s in your pores but most importantly what’s on your mind too.’ Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The content creator and model then went onto explain that she’s be struggling with her anxiety ‘after seeing the effects of gun violence first hand.’ At the end of the video she says: ‘Join me and Bioré skincare in speaking up about mental health.’ The TikTok was accompanied by various videos of Max-Brown applying skincare products, taking walks, and journaling and more. Viewers were shocked to see something so serious and sensitive as a school shooting spoken about in the context of a paid partnership video for skincare. Despite the original TikTok being taken down, users have re uploaded it, with people leaving comments such as ‘is this real?’ ‘This is disgusting!’ ‘WHAT?!’ ‘Capitalism wild…’ and more. Some also took to Twitter to express their disapproval of the advertisement choices made. In response to the backlash, both Bioré and Max-Brown have issued statements regarding the advert. Bioré said that they were ‘so sorry’ for the TikTok, in a statement posted to Instagram. They wrote ‘we did it the wrong way. We lacked sensitivity around an incredibly serious tragedy, and our tonality was completely inappropriate.’ They added: ‘We are committed to continuing our mental health mission, but we promise to do it in a better way.’ Max-Brown issued her own statement on TikTok, writing ‘I am so sorry about this partnership video. This was strictly meant to spread awareness about the struggles that I have had with anxiety since our school shooting.’ She added, ‘I did not mean to desensitise the traumatic event that took place.’ @cecileemax Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.