Mother of boy in H&M’s ‘coolest monkey’ ad says ‘Get over it’

REMEMBER the controversy over the little boy wearing this “offensive” H&M jumper? Well his mother has come out saying we’re all being way too sensitive.

Terry Mango and her son, featured in a controversial H&M ad for a hoodie that read, "Coolest Monkey in the Jungle." Facebook; H&M

THE mother of a child who was featured in a controversial H&M ad for a hoodie that read, “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle,” said that people calling it racially insensitive need to “get over it”.

In a series of since-deleted Facebook posts, Terry Mango, from Stockholm, Sweden, said she didn’t support the backlash over the ad — which even prompted singer The Weeknd to end his partnership with the brand.

“Am the mum and this is one of hundreds of outfits my son has modelled,” Ms Mango wrote. “Stop crying wolf all the time, unnecessary issue here … get over it.”

The mother continued: “If I bought that jumper and put it on him and posted it on my pages, would that make me racist? I get pples [sic] opinion, but they are not mine.”

In another message, Ms Mango said she had been to all of her son’s modelling shoots and was with him when he modelled the hoodie in question.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion about this,” she wrote. “I really don’t understand but not coz am choosing not to but because it’s not my way of thinking, sorry.”

The H&M hoodie which caused the initial controversy.

H&M apologised for the ad on Monday.

“We’re deeply sorry that the picture was taken, and we also regret the actual print,” the company said in a statement. “Therefore, we’ve not only removed the image from our channels, but also the garment from our product offering.”

The statement continued: “It’s obvious that our routines haven’t been followed properly. This is without any doubt. We’ll thoroughly investigate why this happened to prevent this type of mistake from happening again.”

NBA megastar LeBron James and Manchester United forward Romelu Lukaku are among the many who spoke out against the ad.

“We as African-Americans will always have to break barriers, prove people wrong and work even harder to prove we belong but guess what, that’s what we love because the benefits at the end of the road are so beautiful!” James wrote in a post showing the boy wearing a crown accompanied by the words “King of the World”.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission.