Argos has removed a Sainsbury’s Tu advert for a pair of school trousers after it was found that the product description contained a racial slur.
The retailer, which is owned by Sainsbury’s, apologised after it found that the product name – ‘grey reinforced knee grow hem woven trousers’ – included a term frequently used to bypass language filters online.
Customers said they were ‘disgusted’ and ‘triggered’ by the listing, which specifically said the item of clothing had a ‘knee grow hem’. The phonetic term represents a deliberate effort to avoid accusations of racism online and across social media and as such has become problematic in its own right.
Social media commentators were quick to point out that missing the term throughout the entire product naming, development and marketing process points to a clear lack of diversity across Sainsbury’s team.
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X user and political commentator Esheru Kwaku suggested including ‘a few Black faces in the decision making process’ to avoid mistakes like this in the future.
Hi @sainsburys @Argos_Online I know you’re the same company, are you aware that the item name below is freely used by racists to by pass n-word filters? May I suggest renaming the item. Also maybe a few Black faces in the decision making process, to avoid this in the future. pic.twitter.com/3S9GOPighF
— Esheru (@EsheruKwaku) July 24, 2024
Kwaku told Yahoo News: “The first thing I thought was, my God, how could they have missed this?”
“You see all the small intricacies, the code words people use to describe black people. For example, ‘knee grow’, or ‘DEI hire’, is another word for the n-word – they use these euphemisms to bypass filters on X.”
A spokesperson for Tu, Sainsbury’s own-brand clothing label, confirmed that the product is being ‘urgently’ renamed.
“We’re truly sorry for the upset this has caused. We have listened to the concerns which have been shared and are urgently updating the product labelling.”
