Volkswagen issued a statement on Thursday apologizing for a racist Instagram ad it posted last month.- The company took down the ad after it was posted, apologized, and vowed an investigation, which ended last week.
- Following the investigation, the board said that "racist intentions did not play any role whatsoever" in its production.
- The ad did, however, show a lack of cultural sensitivity, the statement said.
Volkswagen apologized on Thursday for a racist Instagram advertisement it ran last month to promote the new eighth-generation
The statement also outlined steps the company will take to "ensure that the production and publication of inappropriate content will be prevented in future."
"On behalf of the Board of Management, I want to formally apologize for offending people as a result of a lack of intercultural sensitivity and professionalism," Hiltrud D. Werner, a member of the Volkswagen Group Board of Management who deals with integrity and legal affairs, said in the statement. "This was a violation of values for which Volkswagen stands."
The ad drew backlash for its depiction of a huge white hand picking up and flicking a Black man away from a yellow Volkswagen Golf. The man is then pushed into a restaurant called Petit Colon, which translates to "Little Settler" or "Little Colonist."
The company took down the ad shortly after it was posted, issuing an apology and vowing an investigation, which ended last week. The probe, Werner said, concluded that "racist intentions did not play any role whatsoever."
"We found a lack of sensitivity and procedural errors," Werner said. "And we are now taking targeted steps in response."
Those steps, according to the release, include boosting ethics and cultural training, increasing diversity, and establishing a board of diversity experts to review ads and other creative content.
The apology comes days after the Volkswagen Group, which owns several car brands including Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, and VW, announced that its CEO, Herbert Diess, would give up his position as head of the VW brand. He will stay on as head of the group, while fellow VW brand executive, Ralf Brandstätter, will assume the role of CEO.
Aside from the Golf ad, Diess came under fire internally for lackluster sales of the Golf, along with technical issues plaguing the new Golf and upcoming ID.3 model, The Wall Street Journal reports.