Fifth Harmony star Lauren Jauregui has called out the skin care brand Dove over their insensitive advert which sparked major outrage after it was shared on social media by a makeup artist.

The 3-second commercial showed an African-American woman taking off her top to reveal a white woman, who then took off her top to reveal an asian woman. However, the way the advert was shot, appeared to imply that the black woman had washed herself with Dove soap and then turned into a white woman.

This caused a backlash on social media, with viewers saying it was racist, pointing out that by depicting a black woman transforming into a white woman, the soap commercial was suggesting that black skin is “dirty”.

They said it was a sinister trigger for all the issues that remain unsolved [within the beauty industry] about the disturbing reality that women of color are still taught they are less beautiful than white women.

Dove has since pulled the ad and issued an apology on Facebook, saying that the advert: “did not represent the diversity of real beauty which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to our beliefs, and it should not have happened... we apologise deeply and sincerely for the offence that it has caused”.

However, the apology itself has attracted further criticism, with Jauregui for one, tweeting: “I wanna know what it was SUPPOSED to do for women of colour. It was purely racist. There's no debate and this is a pathetic apology.” 

Watch Lauren Jauregui with Fifth Harmony below: