Tesco becomes first UK supermarket to sell inclusive skin-tone plasters

Tesco follows lead of small online businesses

Tesco has become the first UK supermarket to launch plasters in a diverse range of skin tones, a move that the retailer has said could “make a genuine difference”.

The plasters come in dark, medium and light shades and will be available online and in-store from today.

Paulette Balson, chairwoman of the BAME at Tesco network, said: “One of the main objectives of our network is to help Tesco better serve our customers from all backgrounds and communities. No UK supermarket had ever stocked plasters in a range of skin tones before and we saw this as an opportunity for Tesco to lead the charge and make a genuine difference.

“Through our research within the network, we know how emotive a product like this can be. For example, one colleague reported that their child had felt self-conscious wearing a plaster on their face to school recently, because it did not match their skin tone and stood out.”

The supermarket said it developed the plasters after an employee saw a viral tweet in which a black man said he was “holding back tears” at finding a plaster that matched his skin tone after 45 years.

It’s taken me 45 trips around the sun, but for the first time in my life I know what it feels like to have a “band-aid” in my own skin tone. You can barely even spot it in the first image. For real I’m holding back tears. pic.twitter.com/GZR7hRBkJf

— Dominique Apollon (@ApollonTweets) April 19, 2019

The plasters are manufactured by Tru-Colours which was founded by Toby Meisenheimer, a Chicago-based dad who realised the lack of diversity within the plaster market when he adopted his son Kai, who is Black, according to Huffington Post.

“I just want my kids, who are already gonna struggle with the fact that they do not have the same skin colour as their dad, I want them to see they were made as just as authentic and just as beautiful and the bandage market needs to reflect that,” Meisenheimer said in a statement.

“There is something special about what a bandage does in terms of the connection between a parent and a child at the right moment in time where there is hurt, there is pain and a grown-up can show up and provide care and love in the form of a bandage.”