Spain's postal service ends its skin color-inspired stamp campaign that made the lightest stamps the most expensive

 

Correos, Spain's postal service, ended a widely derided stamp campaign inspired by different skin tones, just three days after its launch, following criticism that it perpetuated racism.
The government-run postal service earlier this week debuted "Equality Stamps," a collection of four stamps meant to represent different skin colors. The palest of the stamps cost 90 cents more than the darkest stamp -- a price difference meant to reflect the value Spaniards place on people based on their skin color, according to an ad campaign for the stamps.

The online response was overwhelmingly negative. Thousands of Twitter users criticized the campaign upon its launch, calling it tone-deaf or "accidentally racist." Many users expressed surprise that a government-run service would approve such a product.
Sales of the stamps ended Friday morning, a spokesman for Correos told CNN. He said the postal service "will not make comments" about the criticism the campaign received.
Asked if the end to the campaign was a reaction to that criticism, he told CNN, "It's not like that."
"Correos is an anti-racist company," said the spokesman who noted that the postal service does not usually specify when a campaign will end.