Racial stereotypes still rife in adverts

Dove has apologised after publishing an advert on its Facebook page which showed a black woman turning into a white woman.

As a young girl growing up in South Africa, I was often confronted with racist stereotypes in adverts. One of the most striking and offensive was the soap advert that promised to turn black skin white.

One would hope that in 2017 such crude stereotypes would have been discarded by the advertising industry. The subtle and not so subtle denigration of black women in advertising continues.

It’s not the first time Dove has been criticised for being racially insensitive in an advert. A 2011 ad that showed two women of colour and a white woman standing in front of “before” and “after” signs was also criticised.

Brands like Dove have made millions by preying on women’s insecurities and convincing them they need to buy products to meet societal standards of beauty: sure, you’re beautiful just the way you are, but use our products and you can be even more beautiful. The impression given is that Dove soap can change your skin from black or brown to white.

What makes it even more nauseating is the fact that Dove is a sub-brand of Unilever. In an era of increasing transparency, parent companies like Unilever can’t hide behind a barrage of sub-brands anymore. They can’t promote skin lightening in India and self-esteem in other parts of the world and expect to retain any credibility when it comes to their corporate brand.

Perhaps we should welcome Dove’s latest foray into social media.

The fact is that such advertising has a long tradition and subliminal racial stereotypes can still be detected in advertising today.

It’s time we took action as consumers to challenge the institutional racist nature of these companies and teach them the value of our rand.

Yasmina Sadeck Durban