Genealogy company Ancestry has taken down a recent commercial following public outcry that the ad whitewashes slavery. The Lehi, Utah-based company removed the ad from YouTube on Thursday and is in the process of pulling it from TV, according to a spokeswoman.
“Ancestry is committed to telling important stories from history,” the company said in a statement. “This ad was intended to represent one of those stories. We appreciate the feedback we have received and apologize for any offense that the ad may have caused.”
The 30-second spot depicts the apparent love story of an interracial couple in the 1860s. The white man tells a black woman that they can be together across the border in Canada. Many viewers criticized the commercial for whitewashing interracial relationships during that time; often black slaves were raped by their white owners, which resulted in mixed-race children. One person on Twitter said that ancestry information for blacks “is as painful and traumatic as it is illuminating” because of such concerns.