A black model who appeared in a Dove advert denounced as racist by many social media users has defended the clip, saying it far from belittled black women — it celebrated ethnic diversity.

Lola Ogunyemi unwittingly found herself at the centre of an international furore over a 13-second video posted on Dove's US Facebook page which showed her removing her t-shirt to reveal a white woman, who then took hers off to reveal an Asian woman.

"I don't feel it was racist," she said in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday.

In an article published in The Guardian, Ms Ogunyemi said she loved the ad and was proud to be in it.

"My friends and family loved it. People congratulated me for being the first to appear, for looking fabulous, and for representing Black Girl Magic. I was proud," she said.

Many Facebook and Twitter users said the clip signalled white people were cleaner or more beautiful than black people and likened it to 19th century soap adverts that showed black people scrubbing themselves to become white.

Loading

But Ms Ogunyemi said the stills from the clip that shot around the internet over the weekend — which mostly showed only her and the white woman, leaving out the Asian woman — gave the wrong impression.

She said there was a 30-second, made-for-TV version that had other images and a slogan that made it much clearer the intention was to say all women deserved quality products.

"The screenshots that have taken the media by storm paint a slightly different picture," she said.

Loading

Dove apologised for the Facebook clip, saying it had "missed the mark in representing women of colour thoughtfully".

Ms Ogunyemi, who is Nigerian, born in Britain and raised in the US, wrote in The Guardian she had "grown up very aware of society's opinion that dark-skinned people, especially women, would look better if our skin were lighter".

Far from fitting into this narrative, she wrote, her participation in the Dove advert was a chance to "represent my dark-skinned sisters in a global beauty brand".

However, she said Dove could have defended itself by better explaining the concept behind the clip and the company should have spotted the risk that the sequence of images could be interpreted as racist given it had run into trouble over similar content in the past.

"They should have strong teams there that can point this kind of thing out before it goes to air," she told the BBC.

Loading

Dove, a Unilever brand, was criticised in 2011 over an ad which showed three women side-by-side in front of a before-and-after image of cracked and smooth skin, with a black woman on the "before" side and a white woman on the "after" side.

Another point of contention was a label on a Dove product that said it was for "normal to dark skin".

ABC/Reuters