Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamie89
Do i think it's unlikely that highly paid marketing people for a company as big as Dove that relies on its image and doesn't need to pull stunts to make sales would realise they've made a potentially racially offensive ad and respond with "lol guys the internet is going to lose its **** over this" - well yes, very unlikely. It doesn't make sense as like I said it wouldn't be worth it for them to risk their reputation over a racism controversy. Why would they seek that kind of attention when they don't need to?
And we don't know how many people were involved with the decision, it's a 3 second Facebook gif, not a large marketing campaign, and since a lot of people have seen nothing racist when viewing it, and the nature of how it even became a controversy - lifting screenshots out of context into a seperate post, it's believeable those marketing people wouldn't have either.
As y.winter said the concept of people fading into each other is hardly new, should they ensure only white people are cast in these types of ads, or that they must go in a specific order? It's all wildly over thinking such a simple ad and I disagree that most people would view it and see racism, and so given the lack of sense it would make for the marketing people at Dove to go ahead with it if it had been spotted, I think the most realistic explanation is that the potential for controversy was overlooked.
ETA: omg Ammi!   |
Right but the question I'm asking isn't "is it actually racist", it's "should people paid to make Internet ads have realised that people on the Internet would cry racism".
The answer to the first question is subjective and debatable... The answer to the second question, I maintain, is either that they knew when they were making it that it would have backlash, or they are straight up incompetent. I would have thought that anyone making an Internet ad would know what people online are like? And if you know that, even the basics of that, then you know that "Brown skin off revealing white skin" in any context will be branded by some as problematic and racist. If someone does NOT know the basics like that, then why are they being hired by huge corporations to make ads for them?
So yeah I'm still sticking with what I said before. I doubt the add is intentionally racist, and it is a stretch to see the racism in it, and yes, people with an agenda have twisted it to BE racist... But I still don't buy that the people who chose to release it didn't see those issues coming? It straight up doesn't make sense that they wouldn't, if they have any experience, or common sense, at all.