Zara pulls “Pepe The Frog” skirt after online backlash

These green frogs are causing a stir.

Zara has found itself in the midst of an online backlash today over a denim skirt with cartoon frogs. The frogs, one a light green colour and the other a dark green, have been likened to 'Pepe the frog' a meme doing the rounds with ties to white supremacy. 'Pepe the Frog' first popped up in the early 2000's as an innocent cartoon, but in recent times according to The Sun it's been used as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League “due to its racist and anti-Semitic meaning.”  

#pepe #meme #dankmemes #feels #pepethefrog #rarepepe #pepememes #tagyourbestie #pepethefrogmemes #follow #spam4spam #likeforlike #like4like

A post shared by Pepe The Frog (@pepethe_frog) on Jan 21, 2016 at 11:20am PST

  People on Twitter are somewhat divided on the issue, with some people claiming that the alt-right don't have ownership over the image and others saying it's definitely a different character from another cartoon,  

@BuzzFeed THE RIGHT DONT OWN PEPE

— Michael Beveridge (@mickyb273) April 19, 2017

@BuzzFeed nah he looks like the old guy from spongebob pic.twitter.com/VUMOfx6Fnn

— Carla Mikkelsen? (@daddymads) April 19, 2017

no offense but the zara skirt is not pepe it's clearly old man jenkins pic.twitter.com/ioGd8USr8m

— vanessa (@yarnessa) April 19, 2017

Zara's 'Pepe The Frog' Skirt Is Just Wrong, Wrong, Wrong https://t.co/yDlqJ9mUar pic.twitter.com/yTI1ekOJq7

— Tweetonpolitics (@tweetpoliticsUS) April 19, 2017

Zara has responded to the controversy today they released a statement to Vogue UK,

"The skirt is part of the limited Oil-On-Denim collection which was created through collaborations with artists and is only available in selected markets... The designer of the skirt is Mario de Santiago, Mario explores social interactions through his work and in his own words: 'The idea came from a wall painting I drew with friends four years ago.' There is absolutely no link to the suggested theme."

Despite this explanation, it appears the skirt has still been pulled from it's online 'festival' section.