This influencer stripped away her following.
A skin care brand and an influencer have apologized after a wave of public outcry in response to an ad for pore strips that referenced school shootings.
Micro-influencer Cecilee Max-Brown went viral last week when she posted a TikTok video advertising Bioré’s iconic blackhead-removing strips.
In the since-deleted video, Max-Brown spoke about her experience with managing her anxiety since the Michigan State University school shooting in February, which claimed the lives of three students and the shooter.
“Life has thrown countless obstacles at me this year – from a school shooting to having no idea what life is going to look like after college,” Max-Brown began the video.
The video showed short clips of Max-Brown, a model and student athlete, going through her day exercising, attending a school basketball game, journaling, awkwardly lying in her bed, applying facial serum and putting on a Bioré strip.
The sponsored post — part of Bioré’s campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month to help “strip away the stigma of anxiety” — quickly went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Many viewers shamed the influencer and Bioré, claiming that the ad was insensitive and offensive, as it suggested that a simple skin care routine could help to manage the trauma of experiencing gun violence.
The influencer’s video was taken down on Friday after being online for less than 24 hours.
On Monday, Max-Brown posted a TikTok video apologizing for the ad, insisting, “This partnership was not [intended] to come off as the product fixing the struggles I’ve had since” the shooting.
“I did not mean to desensitize the traumatic event that took place as I know the effects it has had on me and the Spartan community,” the apology read, referring to the Michigan State Spartans athletic teams. “I take accountability for this and will ensure to be smarter in the future.”
Bioré also posted an apology to Instagram in response to the backlash of the “inappropriate” ad that addressed managing mental health in “the wrong way.”
“We lacked sensitivity around an incredibly serious tragedy, and our tonality was completely inappropriate,” the statement read.
In her original video, Max-Brown was seen using the sponsored product and, at the same time, urging others to open up about their own struggles.
“We want you to get it all out. Not only what’s in your pores but, most importantly, what’s on your mind, too,” Max-Brown told viewers over clips of her putting on a pore strip and journaling in her car.
“I found myself recently struggling from seeing the effects of gun violence firsthand,” she said. “I will never forget the feeling of terror that I had walking around campus for weeks in a place I considered home.”
She explained how she suffered “countless anxiety attacks” and cried in her room alone at night, but wanted to encourage others that “it’s OK not to have it all together” — while applying serum and showing off her glowing skin.
Before the video was yanked, it was captured, reposted and critiqued by many other social media users who piled on.
“If you were in a school shooting, you should try a Bioré pore strip,” Twitter user @capt_thomas1492 wrote in reposting the TikTok.
Viewers noted how “American” and “dystopian” the video was, with others blaming capitalism and commenting on how “sad” and “heartbreaking” the post was.
“This is the most American advertisement I’ve ever seen,” @lilikoi333 replied.
“Capitalism profiting off our trauma,” @DrOMachineArt commented.
Twitter user @AztkSmooth noted, “People will do and say anything for views.”
“This is gross and I feel gross after watching it,” @bunnymuffin said.
Others mimicked the ad that many claimed seemed like satire.
“Is it bulletproof in case someone shoots you in your face?!” @DanielHeithorn quipped.
“This is dark. But not as dark as the blackheads this new Biore pore strip removed from my t-zone!” @NotBarbarella joked.
Some Twitter users claiming to also be survivors of shootings mocked the suggestion that the Bioré pore strips could help manage the aftershock of living through such a traumatic experience.
“I don’t know why my therapist or docs didn’t tell that Biore pore strips could have helped heal the bullet wound on my stomach, or my anxiety after being shot, or my fear of loud noises, or stop my nightmares, or help me feel ok at school. Firing them and buying in bulk!” wrote @mia_tretta, a wounded survivor of the Saugus high school shooting in November 2019.
“Instead of having a nervous breakdown three years ago, and ending up in a psych ward for a month, I should have just used Biore pore strips,” @JenniferBethK said.
“I suppressed my PTSD and anxiety to the point my body shut down and I was hospitalized and in inpatient to help recover. Then all the counseling sessions. I could have saved myself a lot of money and time if I just used Biore pore strips!” @medic_wasteland cracked.
The skin care brand confirmed to the New York Times that they have been in contact with Max-Brown “more than once” since the video was first posted and plan to provide her with support.
The Post reached out to Max-Brown and Bioré for comment.
There have been a total of 236 mass shootings so far in the US this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Brian Fraser, Arielle Diamond Anderson and Alex Verner were shot and killed in February’s MSU shooting by gunman Anthony Dwayne McRae, who also took his own life.
Five other victims were hospitalized in critical condition.
McRae was not affiliated with MSU and was found with a list of other targets, two handguns and significant ammunition when police found him on foot after the campus massacre.
The motive for the mass shooting remains a mystery.
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