The Insurance Institute of Ireland (III) has pulled their member magazine after the front cover was depicted as “racist” and “insensitive”.

The front page of the quarterly magazine was entitled ‘the dark side of insurance’ and referred to the rise in cyber risks.

The image, which was drawn by a freelance artist, shows dark purple thieves stealing phones, money and passwords from a woman with a pink face and blonde hair.

The III, which is a training institute for workers in the insurance industry, decided to pull the cover after they received a number of complaints about the image. It is understood a number of the complaints criticised the cover as being “racist”.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Insurance Institute of Ireland said they were “regretful” that the image had been viewed negatively.

“On Tuesday 19th March, we were informed that there had been some commentary online in relation to the front cover of the latest edition of our member magazine.

“We were both surprised and disappointed to learn that the graphic had been interpreted in a negative way, as this was categorically never our intention.

“We took the feedback on board and removed the graphic immediately,” they continued.

“While never our intention to offend, we are conscious that it caused some upset and for this we are regretful.

“It’s a professional organisation, representing over 17,500 members, we hold ourselves to very high standards and so any misunderstanding or negativity in relation to content we have created is something we take seriously.”

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