Investor Steve Stoute and Lisa Price founder of Carol’s Daughter, a hair and skin care line, linked to create a new multiracial ad campaign. After looking over the U.S. Census, it was apparent that the “other” box is being checked a lot more often than in past years. This sparked a promotional avenue for a multiracial ad campaign. The intent was to display the diversity of the US population with a polyethnic campaign.
“When I say polyethnic, I mean women who are made up of several ethnicities. If you ask them what they are, they’re going to use a lot of different words to describe themselves,” said Steve Stoute.
When you hear the word diversity, what do you think of? Common definitions would include the words different and variety. If women will use a lot of different words to describe themselves, why wouldn’t Carol’s Daughter use a collection of different looking women to describe their diversity campaign?
While the concept is thoughtful and expressive, the ad falls short. Selita Ebanks (African, Indian,Irish and Jamaican descent), Solange Knowles (African American and French Creole descent), and Cassie Ventura (African American and Filipina descent) are all beautiful multiracial women, but adding a brown and/or dark complexioned face of any ethnicity would add to the notion of diversity. One would assume that the idea of diversity in beauty would exhibit a range of beauty. Emphasis on range. Their hair texture is different from each other, but their skin tone isn’t. Showcasing women who are indeed polyethnic, but complexions are similar is not visually diverse. Ad campaigns are visual. People are emotionally drawn to what they see. A beauty diversity ad campaign stating diversity but not visually covering it can send the wrong message.
There are many different color crayons in the coloring box. Ideally, if we wanted to reflect what’s in the box we would pick crayons that were vastly different from each other. A white, cream, and beige crayon wouldn’t reflect that box too well, but a green, red, and blue one would.
“Women in my family range from vanilla to the deepest chocolate,” said Selita Banks.
Take a moment to digest that visual, now that range, would be diverse and beautiful!
—— By: JournalisticChic
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