In a win for diverse representation, one of the UK’s largest supermarkets, Tesco, has launched plasters in shades ‘medium’ and ‘dark’ to accompany the ‘light’ colour plasters they have always sold.

Although there has long been demand for plasters that accommodate more skin tones, Tesco was propelled into action by a tweet from Dominique Apollon, a researcher at US-based non-profit racial justice organisation, Race Forward, in which Apollon shared how emotional it made him, at the age of 45, to have finally found a plaster that matched his skin tone.

The tweet went viral, receiving more than 500k likes and even received a reply from Star Wars actor, John Boyega who said; “Yep! On film sets where we get cuts alot, make up artists have to paint it brown to get you picture ready.”

To explain why the plaster made him feel like holding back tears, Apollon further tweeted saying; “This felt like belonging. Like feeling valued. Sadness for my younger self and millions of kids of colour, esp black kids. Like a reminder of countless spaces where my skin is still not welcomed. Feared. Hated. Like, “Why am I really thinking all this ‘bout an effing band-aid?””

The BAME at Tesco staff network helped develop the plasters with testing and feedback and provided input into the product’s final design. Nicola Robinson, health, beauty and wellness director at Tesco, commented: “As one of the largest retailers in the UK, we understand that we have a responsibility to ensure our products reflect the diversity of our customers and colleagues.

“We believe the launch of our new skin tone plaster range is an important step and a move that we hope will be replicated by other retailers and supermarkets across the country.” Superdrug have been the next to say they too will introduce diverse plasters. However it is important to note that two women of colour entrepreneurs have alledged that Tesco took the idea from them. Joanne Baban Morales, founder of Nünude, a British nude skin-matching garment brand and Vivan Murad, founder of Skin Bandages a Swedish plaster company, produced Skin Bandages By Nuditone, a line of plasters in different skin tones.

They claim to have pitched the idea to Tesco back in 2018 but the supermarket showed no interested. When the product came out and Tesco bought several packages in 2019, the pair reached out to them again but again they showed no interest in collaborating. In a press release about the issue, Murad said, “the fact that they have produced and stocked skin-toned plasters is not an issue at all, on the contrary. What’s disheartening is the way they have campaigned, boldly claiming “its about bloody time” and giving no recognition to the brands they’ve sourced inspiration from.”

Sources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/tesco-black-plasters-diversity-skin-tones-the-apprentice-a9384571.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/24/tesco-launches-range-of-plasters-to-match-different-skin-tones

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51611514

https://twitter.com/ApollonTweets/status/1119401959146938368

https://twitter.com/lovettejallow/status/1235143850508849152/photo/2