Original Advertisement 

(Coconuts Manilla, 2019)

Problems with Original Advertisement

The advertisement I chose is for the brand GlutaMAX which offers skin lightening products ranging from creams to supplements. The main problem with this advertisement is that instead of inspiring women to fight against racism, sexism and colourism, the underlying message seems to be encouraging them to accept it and use these products to cope and be “less affected” by it. 

The cosmetic industry mainly targets women and this advertisement with two female models sends the message that women need to have fair skin to be considered beautiful. Moreover, it targets women of colour by making them feel ashamed or insecure of their skin tone through the imagery of a woman of colour glaring in envy at the Caucasian woman who is staring back with a subtly condescending expression. It acts as a toxic reminder to women of colour that due to their race which comes with skin tone differences, they are treated unfairly and are less superior to Caucasian women in our society. Beyond this, their tagline “your fair advantage” has an underlying meaning that insinuates that using their products will minimize the degree that intersectional issues affect them and put them at an advantage of other women within their race. In addition to racism, it promotes colourism within minority groups where those with darker skin are treated worse and given less opportunity by their own race. With the idea that lighter skin will give them more opportunities such as better careers or higher chance in marriage, allowing them to move up in class, it causes women of colour with low SES to be more heavily influenced by this advertisement.  

Another problematic and dangerous aspect created by the message from this advertisement involves class in another way. Women from lower class backgrounds may see this advertisement which further engrains the impression that the disadvantages they experience are due to their darker skin. Thus, finding cheaper, illegal and more dangerous skin whitening products containing hazardous amounts of mercury or hydroquinone which are linked to many health issues such as kidney failure and skin cancer (Khan, 2018; Washam, 2011).

Jammed Advertisement

Jamming Philosophy

In my subverted version of the advertisement, I removed “your fair advantage” as “fair” can be interpreted in two ways; pale skin or equal, unbiased treatment and opportunities. To make underlying meanings more obvious, I replaced it with various ways “fair advantage” can be interpreted beyond how this product can lighten your skin. Essentially, the original advertisement implicitly spreads two messages. First being that their products can allow them to benefit from colourism which is depicted by the first phrase in the jammed advertisement. Second being the false idea that women of colour will have the same advantages and opportunities as Caucasian women if they invest in skin lightening products. 

Instead of showing before and after images of a woman using their products, they opted to compare a woman of colour to a Caucasian woman. To make the second message more obvious and bring attention to the visuals of the original advertisement, I added the phrase “Achieve fair skin like Caucasian women with GlutaMAX!” and the one below it. By doing so, the bizarre subtext being revealed is that lightening your skin to be more similar to Caucasian women and altering yourselves to match Western beauty standards will give you the same opportunities. I wanted to highlight this absurd message as there are so many other reasons beyond skin colour than prevent women of colour from obtaining equal opportunities. No matter how pale a coloured woman is, it will not make them equal to Caucasian women in Western societies due to heavily embedded racism. 

Additionally, I added “There is no such thing as being too white” because I wanted to emphasize how the original advertisement has the implicit message that the Caucasian race has been socially constructed to be considered the best and that you should be more like them. In other words, the ridiculous message is that even if you are extremely pale, you should still invest in skin lightening products to become more fair to gain fair advantages. 

Lastly, I added more women of colour to emphasize who these products are catered to and how skin lightening products are increasingly popular due to colonialism and racism which has created colourism across the globe. 

References

CoconutsManila. (2019, April 15). Updated: Controversial ad encourages women to use whitening cream to gain ‘fair advantage’: Coconuts Manila. Retrieved from https://coconuts.co/manila/news/controversial-ad-encourages-women-use-whitening-cream-gain-fair-advantage/

Khan, C. (2018, April 23). Skin-lightening creams are dangerous – yet business is booming. Can the trade be stopped? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/23/skin-lightening-creams-are-dangerous-yet-business-is-booming-can-the-trade-be-stopped

 Washam C. (2011). Beastly beauty products: exposure to inorganic mercury in skin-lightening creams. Environmental health perspectives, 119(2), A80. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.119-a80b