Our culture of political correctness: Racism in advertising

Ad called Racist because it compares Naomi Campbell to a chocolate bar

This ad is racist because it supposedly implies that dark skin is bad and white skin is good.

 Above are two recently released advertisements for Dove Body Wash and for Cadbury's new chocolate bar. Both have received a significant amount of negative attention because they have been called racist. In the first ad, the chocolate bar sits atop a pile of diamonds underneath a caption, "Move over Naomi, there's a new diva in town." while right underneath, the ad says, "The world's most pampered bar." Those who believe the ad is racist argue that it is drawing a comparison between Naomi Campbell, an African American supermodel, and a chocolate bar. Chocolate has also been used as a slang term for the dark skin color of African Americans. She is now exploring her legal options as she intends to hold Cadbury accountable for what she believes is offensive to her as a "black woman." What she really should be offended by is the fact that Cadbury is not calling her "Chocolate;" they're calling her a diva.

In the second ad, which came out a little while ago, three women stand side by side in just towels. One woman is latina, one is caucasian, and one is african american. Behind them are two images; a before, featuring scaly, dry, undesireable skin, and an after picture, featuring healthy, smooth, silky skin. Keep in mind that the two skin samples are white. Critics contend that this ad is racist because the placement of the women implies that while black skin is under the before picture and is therefore "bad or undesireable," the white woman has nice, smooth, desireable skin.

In my opinion, neither of these ads are racist. At all. the first ad compares Naomi Campbell to a diva, but because she is african american, it is assumed that any attempt to compare her to something should have something to do with her race, the implication being that race is the only important thing about naomi campbell, not the fact that she is notoriously hard to work with and was recently involved in a blood diamond scandal. In my opinion, the people who are calling these ads racist are finding racism where it does not exist, which I am sorry to say, is racist. As for the second ad, the placement of the before and after photos, and the order of the women from black to white have nothing to do with one another. the before label applies to only the swatch of scaly skin, while the after label only applies to the photo of smooth skin. I believe that Dove's actual intentions were to be racially inclusive because they tried to cover all three major ethnic categories.

Again, I am sensing that the people who think this ad is racist are misinterpreting the ads and are finding racism where it does not exist because of our hyper politically-correct culture. We pounce on anything that might possibly be construed as racist and condemn it. But this very sensitivity to race implies that we have made no further strides in eliminating the importance of race. If racism were not an issue, than the fact that the black woman was even in the ad would not have mattered. If racism were not an issue, than drawing comparison between Naomi Campbell and a chocolate bar would not have made sense. But it does, and I think Naomi Campbell should be more offended that people simply assumed that the only reason Cadbury mentioned Naomi is because she is black, and not for any of her other qualities as a human being. I hope that one day we can call black and white women divas and equally offend everybody :)