Nivea wins most racist ad for 2017

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I don't think you understand it either. The messaging is different but the negative implications are the same.

In Asian countries, lighter, more White, skintones are valued because there is a connotation that it equals wealth. Whereas, darker, more Black, skintones are poor.

South Africa struggled with apartheid, so the messaging is largely the same.

In the Middle East, skin ligtening products are highly valued. Lighter, more White, skintones are valued.

Have you never heard that lighter women are more "pure?" This is a sentiment many many countries hold. Since most of the skin products in those nations are meant to target the audience, who desire a lighter skintone, then the messages are still negative.
True, but the ad doesn't refer to skintones, it's about clothes and deodorant stains.

White is purity when referring to color is as innocent as saying green is envy or blue is hope.
 
In color psychology the color white is always a representation of "purity".

Thats also why heaven and angels are always shown with the color white.

Thats nothing new or racist only if you really wanna see it and its in context with someones skin color.


Also is Wikipedia and common knowledge racist too?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White

"In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness."
 
"White is purity" in terms of discussing clothes... goes without saying and doesn't need to be pointed out. Nivea is race trolling.

No, they're not. The people who created this as simply didn't draw the same connotations as you. You don't have to like the ad and you're entitled to wherever opinion you hold, but if you look at this ad and immediately see racism then you're either just too sensitive or your part of the problem.

https://youtu.be/XmTV62mE1PA
 
The historical context of white representing purity took on a different meaning after things like eugenics, racial hygiene and ethnic cleansing took place during the times of the founding of America and Nazi Germany. If you want to ignore all that then yeah, its not racist in of itself.
 
on par with this

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Don't forget the male equivalent

"Fair and Handsome"

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True, but the ad doesn't refer to skintones, it's about clothes and deodorant stains.

White is purity when referring to color is as innocent as saying green is envy or blue is hope.
Yes. I understand what the advert is attempting to convey.

I was responding to the claim that there isn't a precedent in discussing issues of colorism and race on an international scale. There's a chance that someone in the Middle East could absolutely interpret the ad to be about skintone, which was my point. These aren't just problems unique to the USA.
No, they're not. The people who created this as simply didn't draw the same connotations as you. You don't have to like the ad and you're entitled to wherever opinion you hold, but if you look at this ad and immediately see racism then you're either just too sensitive or your part of the problem.

https://youtu.be/XmTV62mE1PA
You should probably stop making excuses for the marketing team when their message is muddled and the negative implication of black = bad and white = good is universal. Hell, even the color theorists here are kind of proving my point.
 
Go to Miami and you have people trying to get as tan as possible.

Go to many parts of Asia and you have people carrying umbrellas in the sun so they don't get a tan.
 
White = purity is not in itself racist I don't think. It's simply an age old connotation, it's why wedding gowns are white.

That's a myth. The reason was that it signaled wealth. It was a past equivalent of lighting hundred dollar bills on fire today.

When I clicked this thread, I didn't know what the problem was until I realised that people will use it as an excuse to make racist comments.

They're not using it as an excuse to make racist comments. These people probably do that all the time on Facebook. They're telling Nivea "We see you.".
 
The only thing that I see is people reading too much into it.

Sometimes I feel like I now live in a completely different world. I would have never seen anything "racial" about this ad or slogan if a bunch of people hadn't all of a sudden started freaking out about it - either taking offense or taking it to back up their already racist ideas. Way too many people are just looking for new was to get offended and way too many others are just looking for new opportunities to offend those people.

The most that could be said about it to me is maybe it was a bit tone deaf given the wacky world we currently live in at this moment and it may be best to not add any more fuel to that fire. Even if it is totally innocent, and is speaking in terms of what the color white has stood for symbolically for...lord, I don't know how long. Thousands of years? This isn't even remotely a new concept.
 
Bruh better have been down to using the stove for heat to agree to do that ad.

My mom is friends with a talent agent that does commercial casting. Most of the time the actors are never told what the ad is for or what it will even look like until it comes out. Dude was probably just told it was for a Nivea product and that's it.
 
That's a myth. The real reason was that it signaled wealth. It was a past equivalent of lighting hundred dollar bills on fire today.
I thought white was a common colour to be worn by lower class people and Queen Victoria wore a white wedding gown when she married her cousin as some kind of show of humbleness. And people copied her.

That was my understanding of the origin of the white wedding gown tradition. Before then it was just common to wear your most expensive dress which were usually purples and other more expensive colours.
 
I thought white was a common colour to be worn by lower class people and Queen Victoria wore a white wedding gown when she married her cousin as some kind of show of humbleness. And people copied her.

That was my understanding of the origin of the white wedding gown tradition. Before then it was just common to wear your most expensive dress which were usually purples and other more expensive colours.

Nope.
"The pristine white color was difficult and expensive to produce and therefore worn by the wealthy. Only those who could keep their clothes clean (they had servants) would wear the pristine white color"
http://m.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-white.htm
 
The historical context of white representing purity took on a different meaning after things like eugenics, racial hygiene and ethnic cleansing took place during the times of the founding of America and Nazi Germany. If you want to ignore all that then yeah, its not racist in of itself.

That's bullshit and you know it. Skin colour wasn't even a big part of Nazi propaganda due to the fact basically everyone from central Europe was white at that time- especially Jewish people, the main target.
It's kinda funny though, that you indirectly blame a company for using supposedly Nazi rhetoric, that was owned by a Jewish family during the Holocaust and is still partly owned by said family.
 
Nope.
"The pristine white color was difficult and expensive to produce and therefore worn by the wealthy. Only those who could keep their clothes clean (they had servants) would wear the pristine white color"
http://m.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-white.htm
Ah word. I guess white was worn by poor people but not the pristine white, which was expensive. Good to know.

That's bullshit and you know it. Skin colour wasn't even a big part of Nazi propaganda due to the fact basically everyone from central Europe was white at that time- especially Jewish people, the main target.
It's kinda funny though, that you indirectly blame a company for using supposedly Nazi rhetoric, that was owned by a Jewish family during the Holocaust and is still partly owned by said family.
People who were considered subhuman by nazi eugenic standards included anyone who wasnt white.

Edit: also a Jewish family partly owning a company doesnt mean some people who work for the marketing department cant make a dumb mistake.
 
Ok, I give you a 10 for this presentation of mental gymnastics. To somehow connect this add from the middle-east to the US and as relevant or insulting to Americans, is very, very impressive. Also to connect this to Trump, very nicely done.



You can construct everything out of anything as people like Glenn Beck have proven. The question is more, does it make sense outside of the bubble it was constructed.

I have zero idea of where you are getting any of this. I know that it's not related to the post I made, though.
 
Their ad department needs to be fumigated.
 
Definitely a poor ad for sure, but on the other hand, it's pretty clear what the ad was alluding to (which is definitely not black = bad).

Different things fly in different cultures, what is a loaded term in one country is utterly innocuous in the next (hell, ask Germans about the word "race" in reference to ethnicity ) , this seems to be one of those instances where Americans get their knickers in a twist over something that the target audience wouldn't interpret that way.

Nivea's PR department needs to do better.
 
The ad wouldn't be so bad if "white" and "purity" had anything to do with what they were selling. Like if they sold wedding dresses or some shit. Since I don't see how those relate to their product, the argument that "white is pure" has ulterior meaning kinda falls flat.
 
The ad wouldn't be so bad if "white" and "purity" had anything to do with what they were selling. Like if they sold wedding dresses or some shit. Since I don't see how those relate to their product, the argument that "white is pure" has ulterior meaning kinda falls flat.

The product keeps deodorant streaks and sweat stains from appearing on your white clothes, thereby keeping them purely white.

The strategy is sensible. The execution is not great.
 
That's a strange ad even without the black man. Holding a head? It's like a horror movie joke or exaggeration.

It's a mask. It's easier to tell in the alternate ad.


The ad wouldn't be so bad if "white" and "purity" had anything to do with what they were selling. Like if they sold wedding dresses or some shit. Since I don't see how those relate to their product, the argument that "white is pure" has ulterior meaning kinda falls flat.

What?
 
Again the add with the head 6 years old. There was an article about it on Huffington post in 2011. And white is purity association is only about 5000 years old.

But I guess, it is something new, you are right.

well i see you jumping over lanes to interact with my reply to someone else's question. But what the fuck does what you posted have to do with anything?


edit: oh, you thought...hahahahah. Bish fuck Trump, I ain't talking about his diamond and gold encrusted orange ass. You mus be new to pendulums or something. FOH.

Trump is a symptom. Not the illness.
 
The product keeps deodorant streaks and sweat stains from appearing on your white clothes, thereby keeping them purely white.

The strategy is sensible. The execution is not great.

One of the few sane replies in this thread. Considering the world we live in right now with racists on the rise it's easy to interpret it as in poor taste but I find it hilarious that people refuse to understand the intended meaning of the ad.

Which is why they have a black version and a white version. It keeps stains off so your white shirt stays white and your black shirts stays black.
 
Ah word. I guess white was worn by poor people but not the pristine white, which was expensive. Good to know.

You did bring up a good point, which is that buying a dress specifically for your wedding was not a thing, at least before that.
 
Like...do they still show ads like this individually or is it just a portfolio that could have been skimmed through?

I can just imagine trying to pitch this and who would have approved it.
 
The product keeps deodorant streaks and sweat stains from appearing on your white clothes, thereby keeping them purely white.

The strategy is sensible. The execution is not great.

Wow so they even have product to make the add seem readable yet still failed


"White is pure" isn't bad depending on context. Wedding dresses are white because it's a sign of purity. Which is why it's becoming more common to see off color wedding dresses since less and less people stay pure for marriage. That argument falls flat here though, because the add fails miserably at expressing an appropriate context.
 
Wow so they even have product to make the add seem readable yet still failed



"White is pure" isn't bad depending on context. Wedding dresses are white because it's a sign of purity. Which is why it's becoming more common to see off color wedding dresses since less and less people stay pure for marriage. That argument falls flat here though, because the add fails miserably at expressing an appropriate context.

Ad.

As in advertisment.

Not

Add.

As in addition.
 
In color psychology the color white is always a representation of "purity".

Thats also why heaven and angels are always shown with the color white.

Thats nothing new or racist only if you really wanna see it and its in context with someones skin color.


Also is Wikipedia and common knowledge racist too?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White

"In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness."

This.

I understand that people might see it as racist but personally i didnt even think of skincolor when i read the title.
 
Obviously not intentional but come on ad agency lol

Sometimes I feel like I now live in a completely different world. I would have never seen anything "racial" about this ad or slogan if a bunch of people hadn't all of a sudden started freaking out about it - either taking offense or taking it to back up their already racist ideas. Way too many people are just looking for new was to get offended and way too many others are just looking for new opportunities to offend those people.

The most that could be said about it to me is maybe it was a bit tone deaf given the wacky world we currently live in at this moment and it may be best to not add any more fuel to that fire. Even if it is totally innocent, and is speaking in terms of what the color white has stood for symbolically for...lord, I don't know how long. Thousands of years? This isn't even remotely a new concept.

You voted Trump, your opinions on racism are invalid
 
I agree. Obviously a lot of "jokes" could be genuine or are just in poor taste.

Also, white resembling purity is a common in literature and religion. Similar to black resembling evil or impurity.

I don't think the Ad was racist, but it was poorly conceived and not a good idea.
It's different when it's vague and you feature a white or a black person as the personification of the color. It reads as you talking about white people or black people.

I'd the black is courage ad was clearly a black person, people would take it, from the vague context it's presented, to mean it's tapping into a black pride message. That's what's happening when you say white is... And feature what appears to be a white person.

Take the PS3 as that people have been posting. "White is coming" a white person represents white and a black person represents black. It's naive to think that ads, which by nature exclude context, won't have people fill in the central blanks by linking colors to skin colors.
 
Also is Wikipedia and common knowledge racist too?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White

"In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness."

There is something in social studies that people call it institutionalized racism that is about how racism helped shape institutions and the world view of people.

So yeah, as "many cultures" are racist, specialy long time ago, than common knowledge can and will probably be racist, sexist and homotransphobic.

See how in "most cultures" feminine is something connected to only bad things like fragility, weakness and not doing "real" jobs.
 
No, they're not. The people who created this as simply didn't draw the same connotations as you. You don't have to like the ad and you're entitled to wherever opinion you hold, but if you look at this ad and immediately see racism then you're either just too sensitive or your part of the problem.

https://youtu.be/XmTV62mE1PA

Too sensitive? No, they're not. The people who think it's racist simply didn't draw the same connotations as you.
You don't have to like the fact people think it's racist and you're entitled to wherever opinion you hold,
but if you think pointing out racism is somehow bad then you're either just too sensitive or your part of the problem.
 

Ah man, this shit is classic, I remember the initial GAF thread for this ad when it came out. When I see racism this blatant in advertising all I can do is laugh, it's so ridiculous that someone or some group saw this & thought, "yeah okay guys let's give it a go!"
 
basically a whole lot of people are just being too sensitive. not just sensitive, but too sensitive. because those people are sensitive, and this doesn't bother them. so some other people are just being overly sensitive and they need to just do...whtever. something. what do they want them to do?
 
Anyone have an HD version of the civilize yourself Nivea ad? I use that one for my bias training and I've not been able to find a high res pic that I can enlarge to have the text readable.

Also they have several other sketchy ads that have racist implications. One body wash one where the darker skin is said to be dirty and it progresses through​a couple of lighter black skin women until it gets to the white woman that is said to be "clean".

Racist ads are everywhere.
 
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