Group A S2W02 - Racism in Ads

Inspired by the H&M situation this week, we're going to discuss Racism in ads.

Hiya!!

Of course, like everyone else, I've heard about the H&M's badbuzz!!

Honestly, I find that the reactions following this advertisement have become slightly disproportionate.  I don't think that a brand like H&M that has a big notoriety would have fun to convey racist words so stupidly and take the risk of being boycotted!

I understand that this may offend some people, the message on the sweater is a big mistake on their part that the brand should certainly have replaced by "Coolest king of the jungle" ... maybe, but I'm not sure too!

With social networks everything becomes critical, brands must constantly control their actions. That makes me think of Griezman, the footballer who disguised himself as a basketball player of the Harlem Globetrotters, he provoked strong reactions ... that don't have to be in my opinion, he just wanted to disguise himself as one of "his idols", and so of course when you put yourself in the "skin" of a character for a disguise, it also goes through the skin color to be credible ..! *relax* I deviate from the subject of discussion, sorry about this!

Hi everyone !

Like you Melody, I've heard about H & M's bad buzz, and I also think that a great brand like this should be careful to its communication and image.

With the development of social networks, today nothing goes unnoticed. This is why brands must be vigilant about how they communicate. The Dove brand has also had bad buzz. The most recent is that the Dove shower gel will make the skin white. The spot, which lasts only a few seconds, has indeed a young woman of color take off her T-shirt and magically transform into a young white woman. In response, Internet users have inflamed social networks, with #BoycottDove hashtag. The brand immediately remove its advertisement and apologized.

An example, which proves that brands must be carefoul to their communication, because bad buzz happens quickly.

This advert by Dove makes me think of an advertising for soap!
Please have a look --->

But at that time, it wasn't an insult to qualify a person as a negro...that is crazy!!!

Hii
Other a brand of cosmetics like Dove made a bad buzz, it's nivea with this ad:



it is an advertising campaign broadcast in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal that is scandalous.

"I need a product I can trust to restore the natural clarity of my skin," says former Miss Nigeria Omowunmi Akinnifesi. He is seen looking for his daughter at school, under the bewildered gaze of a man who is convinced that she is his sister. "Now I have a visibly clearer skin, which makes me feel younger."

One controversial brand is KFC, which features a white spectator seated in a crowd of black spectators supporting a cricket team. The man asks "How to get out of this situation?", And hands a pack of chicken donuts to the black supporters who are immediately silent. The white man then exclaims: "too easy!"
Intended for Australia, this spot was published on the Internet and it is in the United States that suspicions of racism were mentioned.

Melody Gazengel wrote:This advert by Dove makes me think of an advertising for soap!
Please have a look --->

But at that time, it wasn't an insult to qualify a person as a negro...that is crazy!!!

Oh my god, this ad is so horrible... Fortunately, that kind of ad are forbidden...
I have an exemple which follow the same way, it was for a french chocolate powder ad : Félix Potin.
This ad had been presented at the beginning of 20th century, because when the slavery was abolished.
This is the ad :

We can see a black man who scramble the chocolate powder with the slogan "Scramble and happy"...
This kind of ad makes is very disgusting...

Hello ! I also heard about the bad buzz of H & M, I also think that the reactions are disproportionate vis-à-vis this image. I think it would be a white child in this photo we would not have done so much. But it is true that companies have to pay close attention to their communication and react when there is this kind of problem with crisis communication, for example by writing a press release.
In doing research I found old ads that shocked me enormously I do not understand how this kind of ads could be accepted it's horrible, I'm against racism it's something that revolts me but I find that sometimes reactions are not always justified!
Here are the two ads I'm talking about :

Hi,

All of your ads, including H&M, are very impressive and shocking.

Actually this kind of ads exists in Asia too. It's an ad from China. A woman is puting a black man in a washing machine with the product and is changed in a asian man when out. The woman is delighted to see his change.

Sadly, however, racism stills exists in the world like sexism and ageism. These kind of attitude hurt people. When I was in Korea, I could not imagine how it is not easy to live in another country in a minority and as a girl. It have change my mind on many things and I cannot stand this kind of ads.

Oh my god, I knew there were racist ads but not as much ...! Who doesn't know the controversy of H & M, they hit hard and deserves to be "boycotted" by celebrities and in certain countries. For my part, I had read about this poster: I don't know if you know it ; but it has created a controversial reaction on social networks. A campaign for condoms Manix Zero posted in the Paris metro since December 2017.


As you can see in the photo, we see a young white woman putting her hand on the head of a black man, the image including the slogan "Dare to be closer" (« Osez être plus proches »).

This advertisement is racist because it returns: the black man as a trophy.
By putting the woman in a position of domination, it is always sexist (#sexist and #racist two in one).
Another reason for racism, this advertising could evoke that with manix, we can finally make love with a black without catching AIDS.

Hi,
Like Melody said, lots of adverts for soap (not only dove) qualify a person as a "negro" because they are not clean. It is very outrageous and racist !



Like you, I heard about H & M's bad buzz, and like Marceline wrote, a brand has to be very careful to its communication and image. A communication could be misunderstood or could be a insult for some people.


Like Andrea said this kind of advertising are horrible and disgusting. Today this kind of ad are forbidden or very guarded and denounced (thanks to social media !)
But, that I find "revolting", it is that some brand became famous by the way of racism like the Félix Potin's brand. (that Andrea presents us)
This other examples are for me : Ben's Uncle or Banania

So, I refuse to buy this two brands because I can accept this...

Unfortunately, it exists multiple racism forms : against monority, nationality,...


I find this very sad...I knew that racism in adds existed like Gwen said, but when we see that, we can imagine all this hate into human people...

Melody Gazengel wrote:Hiya!!

Of course, like everyone else, I've heard about the H&M's badbuzz!!

Honestly, I find that the reactions following this advertisement have become slightly disproportionate.  I don't think that a brand like H&M that has a big notoriety would have fun to convey racist words so stupidly and take the risk of being boycotted!

I understand that this may offend some people, the message on the sweater is a big mistake on their part that the brand should certainly have replaced by "Coolest king of the jungle" ... maybe, but I'm not sure too!

With social networks everything becomes critical, brands must constantly control their actions. That makes me think of Griezman, the footballer who disguised himself as a basketball player of the Harlem Globetrotters, he provoked strong reactions ... that don't have to be in my opinion, he just wanted to disguise himself as one of "his idols", and so of course when you put yourself in the "skin" of a character for a disguise, it also goes through the skin color to be credible ..! *relax* I deviate from the subject of discussion, sorry about this!

Ok, Hi Melody, I think you don't really know what is racism to say "he just wanted to disguise himself as on id his idols"... Racism is a systemic issue that we don't have to laugh about. So many black people are victim about these racisme joke. The color of the skin is not a joke, a disguise... You can't put black make up on your face and say "SO FUNNY I'M BLACK NOW AND I LOOK LIKE MY FAVORITE PLAYER LOL", no, you can't because I repeat, skin color isn't a disguise. Moreover, I don't think that whit people have the right to say "that's not racist, that's not problematic..." because they aren't concerned by this attack. Si if the black community say "it's bad and degrading" we just have to be comprehensive.

Before, the black face was used by white actor to imitate black people, african people... They represented them as stupid, lazy, incapable. We can't ignore that. So if you want to commend, you don't spread black make up on your face. That's all.

Today I just want to talk about "systemic racism in ads" :



Pepsi ! Maybe I can explain you a little bit what systemic racism is ? It's the fact that people act like racist people without know it. It's when racism is totally write in the institution, and to have some racist behavior is qualified as a normal thing. Here an example, for many months (years ?) there is the movement "BLACK LIVES MATTER" is an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence towards black people. For example, a black people with a wallet is more likely to be shoted than a white man with the same wallet. Why ? Because of the systemic racism, people use stereotypes to categorized the environment and in our society the stereotypes associated to black people are "violent" for example... so if a policeman see a black man with a wallet, he has more chance to kill him because he can think the wallet is a gun because of the "violent stereotypes".

Return to Pepsi. So, people are fighting this systemic racism by taking to the street... and when you see a white model, who gives a can of Pepsi to a cops (who are more like to kill a black man than a white man), necessarily... that's not very good, as if a can can resolved all the problems...

PS : WE CAN'T JOKE ABOUT MINORITIES ISSUES !! (If you laugh about sexism, racism, homophobia... you just have to forget me <3)

Hello everyone, I also want to talk about the controversy of Pepsi in April 2017. 

As evoked by Vincent, Pepsi causes a slight scandal and to withdraw its advertisement deemed unsuccessful. At first, sighting there is no indication that the ad has a racist connotation like the other examples you have been quotes but a "scandal" still occurred. What is reproached in this video is the fact that it trivializes the "Black Lives Matter" movement, which has been very important in the USA for some time because of the stories between police officers and afro-american populations. 

I find it interesting in the sense that even a large a large multinationale like Pepsi has made a mistake that is less flagrant that H&M but avoidable and that proves the importance of the environnement and the target to realize a good ad. Pepsi certainly didn't do it on purpose, but it shows that racism is still present in the world of advertising and that it is not always explicit...

I put you the whole video here :

Eunhae Park wrote:Hi,

All of your ads, including H&M, are very impressive and shocking.

Actually this kind of ads exists in Asia too. It's an ad from China. A woman is puting a black man in a washing machine with the product and is changed in a asian man when out. The woman is delighted to see his change.

Sadly, however, racism stills exists in the world like sexism and ageism. These kind of attitude hurt people. When I was in Korea, I could not imagine how it is not easy to live in another country in a minority and as a girl. It have change my mind on many things and I cannot stand this kind of ads.

Hey Unnie !
I remember this add ! When saw it, first I was chocked and then I laugh so hard because it's a ridiculous ad, i don't know if this chineese ad did it on purpose but it was so so so clumsy !!
According to Global Times, the  a spokesperson from the Shanghai-based Leishang cosmetics company, M. Wang said that it had no intention of being racist and "the foreign media might have been too sensitive." Yeah I'm not sure, I really don't agree with that. I think people migth see the wrong everywhere or exaggerate but ad have to be very carefull and here it don't care about what others people can think and say. "We meant nothing but to promote the product, and we had never thought about the issue of racism," M.Wang told the Global Times.
For asian people, whiteness symbolize purity. I can give another example of asian ad :
"Just being white, you will win," claims Thai cosmetic company Seoul Secret, in a new ad for a skin whitening pill called Snowz. The ad features Cris Horwang, a Thai actress, singer, DJ and white skin product promoter.



On the social network, Thai people were not agreeing with the message of this ad, they're not racist and this ad can show to the world that they can be racist.
"  I am worry that the world will think Thai people are all obsessed with white skin and has a racist point of view about the skin, please don't judge us for the hole country." said a user of Youtube.