Personal care products brand Dove, a unit of Angola-Dutch mulitinational Unilever, has apologised for an advertisement which shows a black woman turning white after using their lotion.

The advertisement has received backlash on South African social media and has since been removed.

"An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully. We deeply regret the offence it caused," says Dove in a tweet.

This is not the first time Dove has found itself in hot water. In 2015, they were found classifying their body lotion as "normal to dark skin".

They apologised and rebranded the lotion bottle.

-- BERNAMA