The commercial, which was rolled out in Canada earlier in April, showed a white man urging a black woman to “escape to the North … across the border,” the report notes. Then the commercial cut to a black background with the text, “Without you, the story stops here.” A voiceover is reading, “Uncover the lost chapters of your family history with Ancestry.”
Critics quickly took to Twitter to express their anger toward the commercial. It is unclear if the ad appeared in other markets besides in Canada.
Ancestry has apologized for the commercial.
“Ancestry is committed to telling important stories from history,” a company spokesperson emailed CNBC. “This ad was intended to represent one of those stories. We very much appreciate the feedback we have received and apologize for any offense that the ad may have caused. We are in the process of pulling the ad from television and have removed it from YouTube.”
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