Cosmetics brand Dove, owned by Anglo-Dutch group Unilever, has apologised for what has been perceived as a racist advertisement.

The ad, for shower gel, shows a black woman taking off her shirt to reveal a white woman. The ad was criticised for suggesting that the shower gel made women ‘clean and white’, the paper writes.

‘An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully. We deeply regret the offense it caused,’ Dove commented in the wake of the ensuing social media storm.

The woman in the advert, Lola Ogunyemi, told the Guardian on Tuesday that she is not a victim.

‘If I had even the slightest inclination that I would be portrayed as inferior, or as the “before” in a before and after shot, I would have been the first to say an emphatic “no”. I would have (un)happily walked right off set and out of the door,’ she told the paper.

It’s not the first time the brand, which prides itself on being inclusive, has been accused of racism, the Volksrant writes.

An ad from 2011  shows three women, one black under the heading ‘before’ a Latin American woman in the middle and a white woman under the heading ‘after’, creating a similar effect to the 2017 ad.

Dove also advertised body lotion for ‘normal to dark skin’, the paper writes.

@Dove Facebook ad video which is causing the controversy https://t.co/2icMLpgBfI

— Habeeb Akande (@Habeeb_Akande) October 9, 2017