Zara is familiar with controversy. They produced a shirt that looked like a Nazi concentration camp uniform, refused entry to a woman in a hijab at a store in Paris, and more recently, used thin models in a “Love Your Curves” advertisement. Now, the Spanish clothing brand is facing criticism again for a skirt that appears to show Pepe the Frog, a popular internet meme that has become a hate symbol.

The denim skirt, which has since been pulled from Zara’s website, features an image that strongly resembles the Pepe the Frog character. It was part of their “Oil on Denim” festival-inspired collection, which includes “Nope” jackets and brightly-colored peacock illustrations.

When the Pepe-lookalike skirt made its debut, one social media user was quick to take notice. “Zara us really out there trying to sell a P*pe the frog skirt, apparently unaware (?) of its current implications,” one Twitter user wrote Monday night. “This is bad,” she added.

Pepe the Frog, which started off as an innocent green frog comic, was designated a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League last year when it became synonymous with white supremacy. According to their Hate Symbols Database:

The Pepe the Frog character did not originally have racist or anti-Semitic connotations. Internet users appropriated the character and turned him into a meme, placing the frog in a variety of circumstances and saying many different things.

[…]

In recent years, the rise of the “alt right” part of the white supremacist movement, which gets some support from the Internet sites mentioned earlier, has led to an increase in “alt right” Pepe memes. This trend has been made worse by the heated 2016 presidential election. While there are many supporters of Pepe memes, the use of racist and bigoted versions appears to be on the rise rather than falling.
Many on social media agreed that featuring the symbol on the skirt was a misstep. Others, however, believed that a different frog was pictured or that Zara had done nothing wrong.

See how social media reacted to the Pepe the Frog skirt below:

Social Media Reacts to Zara’s Pepe the Frog Skirt

What are your thoughts on Zara’s Pepe the Frog skirt? Do you agree with their decision to pull the skirt from their site? Sound off in the comments section below!