From the time to time, subconsciously, people seem to look at things with color definition. Imagine there is a cup of coffee in front of you, what colors come first to your mind? Probably, you will say that it is black coffee in a white cup. Why? Is there not another color of the cup? No there are but your mind already have been affected by a hundreds of images that can control your recognition for the color of things you look from your birth.
In this ad, there are a black man and a white woman together, which can form the image of coffee in the cup like a Latte. I think that their skin colors represent the color of coffee and milk. Under the woman, a black man makes the basement and above the man, the girl makes decoration of the coffee. This is the typical coffee color so I do not want to blame this ad but what I doubt of this is that why do black color can be represented with a man, or be represented with a woman? Why? There are also white men, black women, or fresh men and women over the world!!! I think that he who makes this ad may have the bias and prejudice of Skin colors of people. What if do the black man be replaced with a black woman? What if the white woman be changed into the white man? Do it have the serious problems for promoting this ad to the people?
I do not think so. Rather it will be more attractive to the people who see that ad due to its new challenge! During writing this article in a starbucks coffee shop, I think that maybe do I also have the bias or prejudice for the colors of things that I imagine? How poor my mind is… I dream the dream that I can be awaken at any moments so that be critical in my life.
This is a striking ad!
답글삭제I agree with your point that there was a definite motive behind casting a black male and a white female in this ad, based on sex and power. As you said, the man on the bottom is to represent the strength he has to hold her up but it could also be interpreted that her body and her sexuality is being used to keep him from rising up to power.
Color is always associated with racism.
답글삭제There was a time when interracial marriage between black and white people had been a taboo in the Western society and I think it’s still going on. A black man and a white woman’s couple were considered more harshly to the white people, comparing to a white man and a black woman’s couple. The idea that an inferior black man cannot have a white girl was prevailing.
Naked bodies have sexual connotation but it doesn’t look romantic. The black man looks ordinary, but the white woman looks unreal and she has kind of celestial beauty. They don’t even see each other. There’s no chemistry between them. The man seems more like a servant who should hold up and support his angelic master. This ad was made by the perspective of the white supremacists.
I just want to add a short comment. Besides the obvious idea of racism, I want to add the idea of good and bad, heaven and hell. Looking at the white girl, look how white she is. In my life, I have meet maybe a half dozen or so white people looking like this. She is too white. Even her hair color is a blonde white. Now, looking at her with the darkened background, she sort of shines giving an angelic personification representing heaven. The black man is on the bottom, representing the image of hell. Hell is mostly thought of the color red with fire, but also black as it is the opposite of white. The man has dreads, short spikey dreads, giving the appeal of horns, like a devil. However, he is not the blackest man I've seen, on the contrary, he's an attractive looking guy. So the message is, white people are good but not as much as her, and most blacks are bad. As color is used psychologically, the ideal of racism is subconsciously embedded into our psyche even though we percieve to others as not.
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