Tesco Is About To Launch Band-Aids In Diverse Skin Tones After Being Encouraged By Its Employees
If your skin is white, you probably have never even thought about why most band-aids are beige. The reason behind this color choice is that band-aids are not only intended to cover your bruises and wounds—their purpose is also to hide them. For this reason, band-aids should blend in with your skin. That’s something black and Asian people know well. Why, you may wonder? Because there are still too few options for band-aids that suit darker skin tones.
More info: tesco.com
Recently, Tesco introduced band-aids that comes in 3 different skin tones
Image credits: tesco
Sure, not everyone cares if the band-aid matches their skin.
That’s why so many of us opt for blue-colored band-aids or even yellow. Some of us even grab children’s ones and cover ourselves with fun and colorful plasters. But you know what? It’s always nice to have a choice, but not all of us have it yet. So, to change that, Tesco, a supermarket chain in the UK, is releasing band-aids that come in 3 different skin tones. And it’s “about bloody time,” as their slogan says.
Image credits: tesco
The idea to make these band-aids belongs to one of Tesco’s employees who noticed a viral tweet from a black man who, for the first time, at the age of 45, found a band-aid to match his skin tone.
Image credits: tesco
The emotional tweet quickly went viral, as many people could relate to the issue.
Tesco acknowledged the need for more diverse band-aids (more commonly known as plasters in the UK) and became the first supermarket in the UK to do so.
Image credits: tesco
“No UK supermarket had ever stocked plasters in a range of skin tones before and we saw this as an opportunity for Tesco to lead the charge and make a genuine difference,” said Paulette Balson, chairwoman of the BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) at Tesco network.
Not only does the supermarket aim to provide items that are valuable to its clients, but they also hope that other retailers will follow their lead in being more diverse.
“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,” said Nicola Robinson, health, beauty, and wellness director at Tesco.
Image credits: tesco
These soft and durable band-aids come in a box of 40 and cost £1. They are available in three different shades: light, medium, and dark.
Here’s how people reacted
6Kviews
Share on FacebookCall me dumb but I never realized plasters are supposed to be skin tone. The beige ones are too dark for my skin. Good idea to produce them in different skin colours!
Same thing, the ones I had usually were too pink or a weird dark yellow, but never cared about it. I understand if there are people that do care and want skin color ones and different tones.
Load More Replies...This is a great idea, why are people getting so worked up over different colored band aids? If they offend you that much, just don't buy them
Personally find it good for kids or anyone concious of band aids being visible. I need to use plaster offen on my fingers and making a visible statement don''t bother me anymore. That's the thing it used to bug me and with all the virus or possible infection from open wounds. Inclusion in safety matter too, just like in tight
In hindsight, I'm wondering why no one thought of this before! It seems so obvious now. I hope more companies do this.
I really didn't know this was an issue...is the world really that sensitive?? Maybe I didn't notice since all my band-aids have Spongebob on them.
Some people get self-conscious about band aids or don't want people to keep asking "What happened to you?" I wouldn't be self-conscious about it, but I am self-conscious about other things. I'll happily buy the one-piece bathing suit because I'm self-conscious, but if someone with a similar build is comfortable in a bikini, that's fine, too.
Load More Replies...That right there is the reason people^^^^ Opps sorry you're too racist to care. My bad! What was I thinking? Because my body produces ”too much” melanin I should be silent and not care about ”simple” things like band aids being brown to match my skin tone. LOL! Okayyy! Keep trying... We’ll still be here rather you like it or not! To the NICE people on social media, have a fantastic day! I think this post is awesome! Btw I have a fantastic life I'm not going to loose sleep if I get a million thumbs down or if u decide to call me out of my name. You will read this, u will be effected and I won't check this post again. 😘
I want to apologize on behalf of the ignorant people on here who think this isn't a big deal. Some are even saying "those beige bandaids never matched my skin tone and I'm white". Like it's supposed to match to the exact precise color. They've never had to deal with only having a vastly different shade of bandaid available to them, because their country was only catering to one race. They need to get a few first hand experiences laid out for them before they open their mouths. It's upsetting to see that they'd rather shout about how sensitive people are instead of acknowledging that there's still left overs from a terrible time when black people were not considered people.
Load More Replies...I'm white. When i cut my finger I use funny plasters, but when I wear high-heels and have a blister, then I go for natural skin tone plaster, otherwise it doesn't look professional at my work place. It has never came across my mind that plasters were not available in different colours. Great idea, great move. We all like options
For everyone who doesn't understand why this is important. No, it's not a bunch of touchy sensitive people getting upset about something trivial. It's not people looking for racism. Out of all the racially discriminating things that have existed in the past 100 years, the bandaid thing is very small, but it's still significant. The reason white people didn't ever think about bandaid color was because the color was always supposed to suite our skin, the bandaid blended in. For black people, bandaids never matched their skin, it never blended in. (The analogy: black people didn't feel like they blended into society.) Bandaid color isn't a problem when your skin matches the bandaid. Kind of like, 'money isn't a problem when you have it'. Black people had to fight for mainstream products to cater to them for a long time. Before the 70s, brown makeup foundation was a limited source and not mainstream at all. You must see that there was a problem with that. Many African Americans have been here as long as or even longer than many white people, they belong here, they are fully American, yet the country took its time in accepting this fact. There's still evidence of discrimination from the past. Beige bandaids are remaining evidence that America was only concerned with white people for a very long time.
Wow, we live in a time when even bandaids are racist. I feel like we just achieved world peace.
ok ok i might be dumb but why don't we just use clear bandages/plasters? that's just my opinion but that's pretty diverse isn't it?
they ought to have done this at the time of invention of these things, it's purely logical as everyone even those part of the "white" race has different complexions. why does tesco have to make a song and dance of it with all the ads though? to give themselves diversity points. I'd be more impressed if they simply released them without all the self accolades, now people are gonna feel awkward buying them.
Why would anyone feel awkward buying a bandaid that matched their skin tone?
Load More Replies...Now we need some for pale skinned caucasians too, those pink plasters don't match anyone's skin tone.
It's normal for brand names to become common-plsce names for things. It's just part of linguistics. Bandaid is in our language, man, it's too late to go back.
Load More Replies...Call me dumb but I never realized plasters are supposed to be skin tone. The beige ones are too dark for my skin. Good idea to produce them in different skin colours!
Same thing, the ones I had usually were too pink or a weird dark yellow, but never cared about it. I understand if there are people that do care and want skin color ones and different tones.
Load More Replies...This is a great idea, why are people getting so worked up over different colored band aids? If they offend you that much, just don't buy them
Personally find it good for kids or anyone concious of band aids being visible. I need to use plaster offen on my fingers and making a visible statement don''t bother me anymore. That's the thing it used to bug me and with all the virus or possible infection from open wounds. Inclusion in safety matter too, just like in tight
In hindsight, I'm wondering why no one thought of this before! It seems so obvious now. I hope more companies do this.
I really didn't know this was an issue...is the world really that sensitive?? Maybe I didn't notice since all my band-aids have Spongebob on them.
Some people get self-conscious about band aids or don't want people to keep asking "What happened to you?" I wouldn't be self-conscious about it, but I am self-conscious about other things. I'll happily buy the one-piece bathing suit because I'm self-conscious, but if someone with a similar build is comfortable in a bikini, that's fine, too.
Load More Replies...That right there is the reason people^^^^ Opps sorry you're too racist to care. My bad! What was I thinking? Because my body produces ”too much” melanin I should be silent and not care about ”simple” things like band aids being brown to match my skin tone. LOL! Okayyy! Keep trying... We’ll still be here rather you like it or not! To the NICE people on social media, have a fantastic day! I think this post is awesome! Btw I have a fantastic life I'm not going to loose sleep if I get a million thumbs down or if u decide to call me out of my name. You will read this, u will be effected and I won't check this post again. 😘
I want to apologize on behalf of the ignorant people on here who think this isn't a big deal. Some are even saying "those beige bandaids never matched my skin tone and I'm white". Like it's supposed to match to the exact precise color. They've never had to deal with only having a vastly different shade of bandaid available to them, because their country was only catering to one race. They need to get a few first hand experiences laid out for them before they open their mouths. It's upsetting to see that they'd rather shout about how sensitive people are instead of acknowledging that there's still left overs from a terrible time when black people were not considered people.
Load More Replies...I'm white. When i cut my finger I use funny plasters, but when I wear high-heels and have a blister, then I go for natural skin tone plaster, otherwise it doesn't look professional at my work place. It has never came across my mind that plasters were not available in different colours. Great idea, great move. We all like options
For everyone who doesn't understand why this is important. No, it's not a bunch of touchy sensitive people getting upset about something trivial. It's not people looking for racism. Out of all the racially discriminating things that have existed in the past 100 years, the bandaid thing is very small, but it's still significant. The reason white people didn't ever think about bandaid color was because the color was always supposed to suite our skin, the bandaid blended in. For black people, bandaids never matched their skin, it never blended in. (The analogy: black people didn't feel like they blended into society.) Bandaid color isn't a problem when your skin matches the bandaid. Kind of like, 'money isn't a problem when you have it'. Black people had to fight for mainstream products to cater to them for a long time. Before the 70s, brown makeup foundation was a limited source and not mainstream at all. You must see that there was a problem with that. Many African Americans have been here as long as or even longer than many white people, they belong here, they are fully American, yet the country took its time in accepting this fact. There's still evidence of discrimination from the past. Beige bandaids are remaining evidence that America was only concerned with white people for a very long time.
Wow, we live in a time when even bandaids are racist. I feel like we just achieved world peace.
ok ok i might be dumb but why don't we just use clear bandages/plasters? that's just my opinion but that's pretty diverse isn't it?
they ought to have done this at the time of invention of these things, it's purely logical as everyone even those part of the "white" race has different complexions. why does tesco have to make a song and dance of it with all the ads though? to give themselves diversity points. I'd be more impressed if they simply released them without all the self accolades, now people are gonna feel awkward buying them.
Why would anyone feel awkward buying a bandaid that matched their skin tone?
Load More Replies...Now we need some for pale skinned caucasians too, those pink plasters don't match anyone's skin tone.
It's normal for brand names to become common-plsce names for things. It's just part of linguistics. Bandaid is in our language, man, it's too late to go back.
Load More Replies...
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