Carl Jones places 4,000 posters as part of a visual activism campaign to eliminate racism from Mexican advertising.
Over the last few weeks in various neighbourhoods around Mexico City over 4,000 posters have appeared challenging the advertising community to produce less racist messaging. With headlines such as ‘Whites are 10% of the population but are in 70% of the ads’ or “If advertising reflects society, then advertising is racist.”
Some Mexican brands choose to feature light skinned models to represent their Mexican products, ranging from beer to designer clothing. This so-called “aspirational advertising” has become common practice for most advertising agencies in Mexico, and former Creative Director and PhD researcher Royal College of Art Carl wants agencies to realize that they are re-enforcing racist and colonial thinking by selecting models with light skin to appear in the majority of advertising messages. This activist campaign is part of his PhD research into Decolonising Advertising.
Under the hashtag and social media pages #RacismoNeon’ (Neon Racism) Carl has created seven different posters printed on neon paper that are placed in locations where many ad agencies and their clients are located, such as Colonia Condesa, and La Roma. One poster placed by a local agency says “Advertising only shows indigenous culture in charity ads.’
Jones believes that it is time for advertising in Mexico to evolve, and help reflect the Mexican population as it really is. He notes that:
“We need to remove colonial thinking from the creative process so that advertising will not reflect racism, classism, misogyny etc, In-order to accomplish this my research concludes that Mexican advertising agencies should reflect the culture as it is, and not how brands pretend Mexican culture to be”
The ‘Racismo Neon’ social media pages are on Twitter, Instagram y Facebook are designed to create conversation amongst workers in the advertising industry and invite them to discuss ways to remove colonial thinking such as white superiority from advertising messages.
As a solution Jones suggests a change within actual advertising agencies, which are dominated by mostly light skinned males in top positions. Even though more women are obtaining these roles, there needs to be more of a gender balance, and far more racial diversity is needed. Also in the hiring of actors is where racism can also occur, where the typical ‘casting call’ asks for “International Latin American look’ which refers to models that have light skin.
Finally, Jones recommends that regulatory bodies that govern advertising should be more proactive, creating specific rules that guide the ad industry before adverts become offensive.
These solutions will help encourage inclusive messages and eliminate colonial thinking from advertising.
#advertising #racism #blm #marketingcommunications#marketingandadvertising #activism
Over the last few weeks in various neighbourhoods around Mexico City over 4,000 posters have appeared challenging the advertising community to produce less racist messaging. With headlines such as ‘Whites are 10% of the population but are in 70% of the ads’ or “If advertising reflects society, then advertising is racist.”
Some Mexican brands choose to feature light skinned models to represent their Mexican products, ranging from beer to designer clothing. This so-called “aspirational advertising” has become common practice for most advertising agencies in Mexico, and former Creative Director and PhD researcher Royal College of Art Carl wants agencies to realize that they are re-enforcing racist and colonial thinking by selecting models with light skin to appear in the majority of advertising messages. This activist campaign is part of his PhD research into Decolonising Advertising.
Under the hashtag and social media pages #RacismoNeon’ (Neon Racism) Carl has created seven different posters printed on neon paper that are placed in locations where many ad agencies and their clients are located, such as Colonia Condesa, and La Roma. One poster placed by a local agency says “Advertising only shows indigenous culture in charity ads.’
Jones believes that it is time for advertising in Mexico to evolve, and help reflect the Mexican population as it really is. He notes that:
“We need to remove colonial thinking from the creative process so that advertising will not reflect racism, classism, misogyny etc, In-order to accomplish this my research concludes that Mexican advertising agencies should reflect the culture as it is, and not how brands pretend Mexican culture to be”
The ‘Racismo Neon’ social media pages are on Twitter, Instagram y Facebook are designed to create conversation amongst workers in the advertising industry and invite them to discuss ways to remove colonial thinking such as white superiority from advertising messages.
As a solution Jones suggests a change within actual advertising agencies, which are dominated by mostly light skinned males in top positions. Even though more women are obtaining these roles, there needs to be more of a gender balance, and far more racial diversity is needed. Also in the hiring of actors is where racism can also occur, where the typical ‘casting call’ asks for “International Latin American look’ which refers to models that have light skin.
Finally, Jones recommends that regulatory bodies that govern advertising should be more proactive, creating specific rules that guide the ad industry before adverts become offensive.
These solutions will help encourage inclusive messages and eliminate colonial thinking from advertising.
#advertising #racism #blm #marketingcommunications#marketingandadvertising #activism
scroll down for translation of the headlines
The seven headlines of the posters are:
- If advertising is a reflection of society , then advertising is racist
- Whites are 10% of the population but are in 70% of the ads
- If Morenos are 80% of the population, why are we not in 80% of the ads?
- Advertising only reflects indigenous culture in charity ads
- Consumers dream of being white even though they are brown
- Why do ads favour white models and the American lifestyle?
- I want blue eyes so I will buy these potato crips
The posters were placed in the zones in Mexico city where many advertising agencies are located.
#advertising #racism #blm #marketingcommunications#marketingandadvertising #activism
