Bath and Body Works pulls candle over KKK resemblance

Listings for the product quickly appear on Ebay after company issues apology

Bath and Body Works has stopped selling a candle after claims its design resembled a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
The retailer’s “Snowed In” candle featured diamond snowflakes with cut outs, resembling the eye holes on the hoods worn by the white supremacist group which terrorised America’s south in the 19th century.
“At Bath and Body Works, we are committed to listening to our teams and customers, and committed to fixing any mistakes we make-even those that are unintentional like this one,” a company spokesman said.
“We apologise to anyone we’ve offended and are swiftly working to have this item removed and are evaluating our process going forward.”
One user wrote on Reddit, the online forum: “Oh God the background colours and the little holes in the label make it look like they are standing in front of a fire … the bad kind of fire lol.”
“How did they not see that coming? Glad they took it down, tho. Sometimes companies really need to double-check their designs before dropping them,” one person wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Listings for the “Snowed In” candle quickly appeared on Ebay, the online marketplace, after the product was pulled from the shelves.
One listing was asking for upwards of $350 for the candle, while dozens of others were posted on the website between $75 and $155.
The three-wicked candle was scented with a “creamy buttermint, sweet musk and cosy vanilla”, according to the now-removed online listing on Bath and Body Works’s website.
The retailer is known for rolling out special themed fragrances for Halloween, Christmas and winter.
Its latest misstep comes two years after the company was criticised for releasing a “limited-edition” range of products to mark Black History Month.
The seasonal releases featured existing products repackaged in containers to resemble Kente cloth, a traditional African textile.