Younker 1

Lauren Younker

Professor Martha Brenckle

ENC 4374-0001

13 November 2015

Advertisements at the Expense of Others

Advertisements that are geared toward a specific audience may end up being offensive to

and disliked by any unintended audiences impacted by the media. Advertising companies target

specific demographics for their work, creating a large possibility that those not within the

specific demographic obtained may be hurt by the desired message. This can be seen in ads that

use race, sexuality, gender, class, or other characteristics to depict the product or service at hand.

Unfortunately, this is very common in advertisements, and has been for most of contemporary

history. Marketing techniques that rely on possible expense of others, especially marginalized

groups of people, are understandably frustrating to those who are receiving the negative effects.

The use of minority cultures in advertising is very real today, in many kinds of rhetoric.

An example of this can be seen in an online ad for a chain of tanning salons, Club Sun Color

Studios, and a special offer they were having for tans around Thanksgiving 2013, which

advertised coloring to look like Native Americans for the Thanksgiving season (Ryan). The

marketing team approached this concept with their intended audience consisting of most likely

those who would use a tanning salons services, possibly white people who may be more likely

to use a tanning salon than other groups of people. However, the unintended audience who was

negatively impacted by this ad would be Native Americans, whose culture and physical

appearance was used for the benefit of this company.

 Younker 2

The text in the ad includes The Indians brought more than just corn to the first

Thanksgiving they brought Sexy Color, and the title of the ad states Have a Colorful

Thanksgiving. Two models are both white females, one dressed up as a pilgrim with paler skin,

the other dressed as a Native American with tanned skin (RyanIt makes sense that this ad would

cause outrage to anyone who recognizes that this behavior is racist and appropriates Native

American culture. It is hurtful to those who are Native American and may see this as

commoditizing their looks. This is especially outrageous considering the history behind

Thanksgiving and the European colonization of America, and what happened to the indigenous

people when settlers came to the lands. The marketing technique was insensitive, and probably

could not be changed to be appropriate without getting rid of this Sexy Indian idea.

Cultural appropriation of Native American culture is disrespectful and ongoing in the

United States. While appropriation of any culture is not acceptable, it seems that Native

American cultures are used very often without consequence. The idea of the Indian, referring

to indigenous Americans, has been fabricated by white culture as a means of dominance and

erasure (Wesaw). Club Salon Color Studios should have known not to use an advertising

technique at the expense of another culture, however, the marketing team knew exactly what it

was doing. The marketing director for this ad was actually a Native American man named David

Arnett, who responded to the backlash of the ad with the statement Sorry for being proud of my

heritage and sexy color (Grimes). While Arnett may have thought this was a good idea, and that

his ancestry gave him permission, this ad was distasteful and ended up not giving the company

as much positive publicity as it wanted.

Looking at another example of advertisements not accepted well by viewers, Doves

campaign that revolved around the idea of real beauty launched in 2013 and was not well-
 Younker 3

loved by everybody. An online video advertisement for this campaign titled Doves Real

Beauty Sketches consisted of an FBI forensic artist sketching various women, first based on

how they described themselves, then based on how a stranger described them (YouTube). When

this viral campaign was out, a lot of positive reviews were up, stating that this encouraged

women to realize that they were more physically beautiful than they may believe. A large

societal problem we currently face is how the beauty ideal, consisting of tall, skinny, fair skinned

and haired women, negatively impacts people, generally women. With this known, Dove wished

to use its presence to address this problem.

However, this ad received a lot of backlash, and for understandable reasons. To start out,

this ad revolves around each persons physical attractiveness, upholding the idea that beauty is

more important than all other characteristics of a person (Stampler). The stand Dove seems to

take is that all women are beautiful and they should know it. While this is important, its more

important for women to know that their worth is based on outer appearance. Furthermore, by

asking women to describe how they see themselves, then have another person do the same to

show the difference, it is implicated that women are their own worst enemies. And while this

may seem true on a personal level, on a systemic level, it is not. Women are trained throughout

life that a certain beauty standard is whats desirable, resulting in body image issues (Stampler).

Another effect of the systemic beauty ideal is that lighter skin is the preferred skin tone.

In Doves video, most of the women are white. These real and beautiful women are in fact a

very specific type of women, mostly white and young (Stampler). There are three black women

in the ad, and two are lighter-skinned; none of them are shown as often as the white women.

Women of color are impacted in a greater way by the beauty ideal and by ads that further it, like

this one. Because of that, Dove was in the wrong to not use a wider variety of women for their
 Younker 4

campaign. In the end, while Dove is giving the appearance of caring for the well-being of women

and their self-esteems, the goal is to advertise that the company is behind this campaign, thus

women should purchase their products over other beauty and health products.

Marketing teams who create advertisements generally do so with a certain target audience

in mind, leaving out many groups of people. As seen in Club Sun Color Studios use of cultural

appropriation regarding Native American skin color, its very apparent that racist tactics are used

without hesitation as marketing techniques. It can also be seen that ads targeted towards a

specific audience may not truly encompass the true nature of the audience, or all of the people

who make up the group. Doves Real Beauty Sketches campaign video did not really touch on

female empowerment like it was created to, focusing instead on the shallower ideals of physical

beauty. Its also important to note that these ads typically cater toward the gender binary,

consisting of just men and women, leaving out anyone who does not fall into the binary. Those

who arent pleased with ads because they arent being considered have a reason for their

discomfort, and prove that offensive advertising is not the best way to market a product or

service.
 Younker 5

Works Cited

Dove US. Dove Real Beauty Sketches | Youre more beautiful than you think (3mins). Online

video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 14 Apr. 2013.

Grimes, A.C. "5 Ridiculously Offensive Ads That Somehow Got Approved." Cracked. Demand

Media, Inc., 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

Ryan, Erin Gloria. Tanning Salon Is Super Thankful Native Americans Brought Sexy Color

Jezebel. 6 Nov. 14. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

Stampler, Laura. Why People Hate Doves Real Beauty Sketches Video. Business Insider.

Business Insider, Inc., 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

Wesaw. Finders Keepers? Adulteration of Native American Cultures in the Name of Profit.

Cultural Survival. Cultural Survival, Inc. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.