I second the vote for stupidity. I bet the conversation went something like this:

Adman 1:"Well, if we don't want to listen to cries of discrimination, we need a black woman, a Latina woman and a white woman."

Adman 2:"Okay, then this is the most aesthetically pleasing and non-racist way to arrange them, according to the seventeen consultant meetings we had this morning."

Adman 3, the voice of reason:"Um, when they're lined up that way, it starts to look incredibly insulting..."

Everyone else in the room:"But the consultants! Even though they all have their own agendas, we must bow to the consultants!"

It's pretty funny that no one involved realized and/or cared that everyone will be looking at the women in the foreground and not the vague and blah-looking closeups of skin in the background, especially when you stick a "Before" and "After" up there.

Does anyone else find the careful racial composition of ads irritating?

Every ad must include a black, a latino and a white. If gender is irrelevant, then approximately half of the people pictured must be women.

From a pure marketing perspective, it would be more effective to target each group with its own ad. But that's not possible - because any individual ad would then appear to be racist/sexist. Horrors...

Wow, I thought the same thing when I saw this ad: "That composition does not look the way they intended--I hope."

Random Guy, do you read beauty mags? It is not uncommon to have three versions of one ad, like for scented deodorant and matching body spray, each with a woman of a different race, spread throughout the magazine. In "Essence" they'll just run the black version. McDonald's has done race-targeted commercials for years.

I see nothing with wrong with including three races in one ad like this. It's a beauty product, and women are more likely to buy it if they feel the model represents them. That's why a lot of hair-color commercials show models with blonde, brunette, and red hair.

That said, I'm surprised the Real Beauty campaign--which features non-models because models are apparently fake people--has been so successful. I'm more tempted to buy something when the model has aspirational vs. "normal" looks.

I'm more tempted to buy something when the model has aspirational vs. "normal" looks.

I don't know if I'll buy, but I'm more drawn to ads that have beautiful women than ordinary ones. Sorry, but if I want to see women who aren't in very good shape, I'll just walk out the door.

I /suspect/ most women are the same. They want to see Gisele Bundchen and fantasize that they will look like her. They don't need a product to look like the "average" women in the ad; they already do!

By the way, did you know that the "real" women are STILL retouched? So, they're not that real.

What's it do for/to Asians?

In further useful news, a dead former solicitor general acted unethically when the government was sued over internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. This is both old news and obviously more important than the President ignoring the War Powers Act.

Well, that's more press than American Indians get.

I find the reactions to the ad upsetting not due to the perceived racism but because the whole thing is axed on the white women in the picture. What if the said woman was replaced by a fair skinned asian model? Would this had sufficed to ablate the feelings of "Anti-PC"ness?

I have the little theory that there's such a thing like "Caucassio-phobia" (the fear of white people) in our society. Please notice that every time we hear about those subtle racist bias in advertising, there's always a white person involved. I look at the ad and I STILL don't understand why anyone is intimidated by the white woman. Do her presence is seen by some dumb blokes as the ultimate level of beauty in the world? If this is the case, those said morons needs to do some soul searching about how their egos are easily bruised by the picture of a woman of European descent.

Who's offended by the /presence/ of the Caucasian woman? If a fair-skinned Asian woman (or a fairer-skinned anybody) was the last woman in the progression to "After/Improved," it would still look bad.

This is a controversial topic in India, where skin-lightening products like "Fair and Handsome" are heavily marketed to men and women, all whom are biologically the same race.

Add to that that this likely wasn't the intended effect. Someone who's paid a lot of money to to know better just made an awful oversight.

I look like an anemic ghost. I should be Miss Universe.

The only way you can come to these conclusions is if you believe that blacks are dirty. So it's actually the complainers who are bigots.

I tend to miss all of the hidden racism in ads because I don't regard blacks as my inferior monkey children. But people who do can't help but pick up on the nefarious symbolism of it all. Physicians heal thyselves.

* something to consider is that Dove may intend this ad for international distributions. There's a big market for skin lightening products in certain countries, like India.

NumberSix, yep, somebody will be looking for new consultants after this, although it took me a minute to figure out that I was supposed to be looking at extreme closeups of flesh.

"Lighter skin seems to be prized across cultures." Noticed that some years ago when I was in Okinawa and dating a local girl. Her makeup was designed to make her lighter skinned.

I looked at the ad and saw nothing amiss, the before and after skin was large and obvious, but I had read this first. And anyway, if Dove HAD made a cream to whiten people, they'd be the most successful company on the planet very quickly. Only white people want to be darker. The rest of the world, not so much.

My guess is that the artist doing the layout got so caught up in the artwork itself, that he/she didn't even notice the implication.

(I've been there--you get so caught in the minutia that you completely fail to see something blindingly obvious. Happens in relationships too.)

Heres is the comment I left on both blogs

I have it on good authority that the head designer of this ad was Chineese. As we all know the chineese read from right to left, so this is indeed racism, against white people

I'd love to see someone at dove try and spin it this way just to fuck with the PCrowd

That's pretty funny, but "Before" vs. "After" is a concept well understood in both cultures.

It's not that it was supposed to be racist. It's just a hell of a mistake. And you don't have to look hard to "see it that way."

"Only white people want to be darker. The rest of the world, not so much"

So true! A thought I never had. Why is that anyways? My dad is as white as Amy and my mom as dark as Halle Berry. I can wear the majority of foundation colors. However I do look like a motherfucking rainbow. The parts that hit the sun are tan and the parts that don't are blue veiny white.

""Only white people want to be darker. The rest of the world, not so much"

So true! A thought I never had. Why is that anyways?"

Skin color has always been symbol of wealth/class/social status. 200 years ago white people (at least women) very much wanted to look white, since tan skin was a sign that you worked outside performing physical labor, whereas pale skin signaled that you were a member of the leisure class. Today, when most poor people live in urban areas and work indoors, a tan is a sign that you can afford tropical vacations, tanning beds, and have the leisure to lie around and soak up the sun.

But I also have a personal theory on this. If you think about it, the skin color of a white woman considered to have a great tan is pretty close to the skin color of a black woman considered to be desirably light-skinned. So maybe there's just a universally desirable "in-between" skin color that everyone's striving for from both ends.

"So maybe there's just a universally desirable "in-between" skin color that everyone's striving for from both ends"

Interesting idea Shannon. I've always been fascinated with skin color. I know in Asia it's still very popular to look very pale, but there are groups of people who tan to be fashionable. I do see a Western influence in tanning around the globe. Certainly in India the actresses seem less paled out and more olive skinned. But still it has never shifted to being dark.

For the record I do find all skin colors attractive, and my fascination is why people do things it would never cross my mind to do. Like bake themselves in a bed or bleach their skin.

These advertisement craps and everything around business is fake and makes me sick. Simply just start ignoring those marketing things!