Tesco to sell plasters in diverse skin tones

The UK’s biggest retailer, Tesco, has launched a range of plasters to match different skin colours and better reflect racial and ethnic diversity.

It said the plasters, which come in light, medium and dark shades, would “better represent the nation”.

Tesco, which the BBC reports is the UK’s biggest seller of own-brand plasters, added that its new plasters would be available at all of its 741 UK stores.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Britain’s largest supermarket said it developed the plasters after a tweet went viral last year describing the emotions one man experienced when he put on a plaster that matched his skin tone for the first time.

In the tweet, which has since been liked over half a million times and attracted over 100,000 retweets, Dominique Apollon wrote: “It's taken me 45 trips around the sun, but for the first time in my life I know what it feels like to have a ‘band-aid’ in my own skin tone.

“You can barely even spot it in the first image. For real I'm holding back tears.”

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important business stories and tips for the week’s best shares - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The Daily Mail reports that Star Wars actor John Boyega subsequently revealed that make-up artists on film sets had to paint his plasters brown to get him “picture ready” after he cut himself on set.

Nicola Robinson, health, beauty and wellness director at Tesco, said: “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.”

The Guardian reports that the product idea was brought to the attention of senior Tesco team members who accelerated its launch.

The BAME staff network at Tesco, which had a hand in the product’s final design, said: “Through our research, we know how emotive a product like this can be. For example, one colleague reported that their child had felt self-conscious wearing a plaster on their face to school recently, because it didn’t match their skin tone and stood out.”

London 7/7 bombing survivor and ethnic minority rights campaigner, Sajd Mughal, tweeted:

The BBC adds that Superdrug will also be launching plasters for dark, medium and light skin tones in six weeks’ time across all of its stores. Boots also told the broadcaster that it plans to launch plasters in a range of tones.