The racial agenda in advertising...

boombang wrote: »

One definite thing that I do notice regarding race in advertising is that any black woman will often be quite light toned or mixed race, often with a big head if curly hair. Watch out for it and you'll see how common it is, especially in ads from the UK. I think there's a "safe" face of blackness that advertisers like to use: black, but not too black.

Reminds me of something I read after watching the NWA film Straight Outta Compton.

A casting call for extras for Straight Outta Compton was released on the Sande Alessi Casting Facebook page. The casting call was looking for African-American girls for the film using an A-D ranking scale. Though the "A girls" category was looking for "classy" women of all colors, the "B through D" categories were very explicitly linked with skin-tone. As the women get less attractive, the casting call wants the women's flesh tone to be darker, with the lowest listing calling for "African American girls. Poor, not in good shape. Medium to dark skin tone." The casting call post went viral as people expressed their outrage of what they call colorism, sexism, and racism in the categorizing of black women