Race and Gender Representation in Advertisements Essay

The media greatly influences and shapes the society’s knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and worldviews about diverse topics. Much of what different audiences within the society know and are concerned about is shaped by narratives, symbols, and images propagated by television, radio, and other forms media (Brooks & Hebert, 2006). These narratives and symbols play a crucial role in the construction of social identities – racial identity, gender identity, sexual identity, urban identity, and so on.



Advertisements are some of the media texts that shape social identities. Commercial organizations have time and again used ads not just to sell products and services, but to propagate certain narratives, especially with respect to race and gender. The propagation of those narratives has particularly gone a notch higher in the age of social media. This paper demonstrates and analyses the representation of race and gender in a selected advertisement. More specifically, the paper pays attention to the social groups targeted by the ad, how the ad violates or reinforces cultural norms, and the broader message conveyed by the ad.



The selected ad is a Facebook ad released by Dove, a Unilever-owned personal care brand. Dove released the ad in early October, 2017 in an effort to promote its body lotion. In general, Dove targeted female consumers of body lotions. More specifically, three social groups are represented in the ad: women in general, women of color, and White (light skinned) women. The ad portrays a dark skinned woman transforming to a light skinned woman after supposedly applying the lotion. From the perspective of the advertiser, the lotion is suitable for the three groups represented in the ad.



While Dove merely intended to promote its lotion to its target audiences, the ad can somewhat be viewed as a reinforcement of a narrative or norm that has existed in the society for centuries: that it is better or more appealing to have a certain skin color as opposed to another. By depicting the transformation of a black woman to a White woman upon using the lotion, the ad, arguably, advances the narrative of racism. Propagated in large part by the media, racism is basically a narrative that normalizes the view that White or light skinned people are better looking than Black or dark skinned people. In the context of the ad, using the lotion makes one White, debatably connoting White superiority. It suggests that as a woman, it is better to be light skinned than dark skinned. Accordingly, arguing that the ad demeans women of color makes sense. It degrades Black women by depicting them as less good looking than White women. In fact, a few hours after its release, the ad stirred emotions on…