The latest marketing misstep is making the social media rounds, with outroars of “OMG, what were they thinking?” and “I hope someone gets fired for this.” H&M released kids hoodies that include a reference to jungle antics, and it all comes down to the picture of the coolest monkey and the survival expert. They chose to have the black boy in the monkey graphic and the white boy in the survivor graphic.

Insensitive? Yes. And marketing experts from all corners disagree on whether it was a downright stupid move or a brilliant maneuver.

A couple of decades back, I worked for a CEO that proudly told everyone that I was the “Guerilla Marketing” expert that increased his business significantly. We absolutely did things to gain attention, some silly, and some shocking, but, we never crossed into controversy.

So, is this Guerilla Marketing from H&M? If so, was it the right decision? If the goal was attention, then it was a smart marketing move for H&M. Afterall, they have been a bit stale lately, with 2017 resulting in struggles they haven’t felt previously and profits down nearly 20%.

Was this H&M’s solution?

I mean, what multi-national retailer wants to have eggs thrown at them, especially in the midst of all the other insensitive scandals that seem to drop out of the sky, daily. Maybe the goal was to say, “look at us too!” If so, they succeeded, in the short-term. What about the long-term?

I think it was a bad move. It shows a lack of sensitivity and integrity in an environment of tension towards race, religion, gender, and sexuality. Not something you would expect from a worldwide retailer with $22 billion in annual sales.

There’s a level of situational awareness and emotional intelligence that is lacking with whoever said these were the right pictures for their e-commerce site. It perplexed me that this was the image they wanted to go worldwide to represent their brand. Why did the black boy need to be in the monkey shirt and the white boy giving that look, as the survival expert? Change the sexes, races, background, etc. and the result would have been entirely different.

Isn’t it time to expect the H&M’s, Gap’s, Uniqlo’s to be more aware?

When we put together marketing programs, the desire to remain an organization of integrity, values, and purpose is stronger than the desire to drive attention through flash-in-the-pan controversy. If we cannot gain the market’s attention without resorting to these games, then we are genuinely awful marketing professionals. Looking back, even years later, I am proud when people talk about our marketing campaigns and our integrity in the same sentence.