We’re used to seeing historical racist advertisements. Aunt Jemima, the smiling black mammy, selling pancake mixes. Uncle Ben, the kindly slave father, hocking rice. All varieties of aboriginals, Native Americans and Asians peddling everything from shoes to coffee to alcohol. But it’s probably a bit more surprising to see that we’re still putting out racist advertisements today. Whether blatant of not, these ads still follow the racist traditions of yesteryear. Let’s look at some of the most racists ads from the 1920’s to the present day:
1.) Aunt Jemima is probably the most well-known of all racist advertising characters. She started out as an advertisement for pancake flour in 1889 and she never changed. Not really, anyway. Now she has pearls and a nice hairstyle, but she's still Aunt Jemima, a happy slave from the old south. Here's a vintage advertisement of Aunt Jemima, with a head scarf and a checkered top, feeding her slave masters her mighty fine pancakes.
2.) In this ad for the Canadian Patriotic Fund, a First Nations member apparently not only wants to be a white man, but also a Canadian patriot! The disparity between the First Nations member's life--traditional garb and a teepee--and his modern currency and letter writing ability shows that this ad was woefully misinformed about the lives of First Nations members. Although the man in the ad was sadly born as a First Nations member, his soul can at least be redeemed into white heaven if he gives money to the Patriotic Fund. Praise God! We're not even going to get into the chicken scratch "language" at the beginning of the ad.
3.) In this ad for Van Heusen shoes, only one man doesn't buy the Van Heusen brand. Can you guess who? You're right, it's the man who doesn't wear shoes at all! Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. The subtext of this advertisement is obviously that only savages don't choose Van Heusen shoes. The nondescript, non-white man wears a bone in his hair so he could never understand the subtle luxury of well-made loafers on his feet. Interestingly, the ad also displays four white men that look exactly alike with different hair colors, subtly homogenizing white men. Sorry, guys, it looks a lot more interesting to be shoeless man #4.
4.) In this 2007 ad from Intel, the boss is white and the employees are black. The slave imagery or white mastery imagery in this ad is apparent from the second you look at it, but Intel claimed to not recognize the racist imagery. Really, Intel? You're going to claim innocence on an ad that uses the age-old thinking that black people are good at running? You're going to claim innocence on an ad that uses visual levels to put black people on a lower plane--bent down!--to a higher, standing white man? If you're this stupid, Intel, I'm definitely not buying a computer from you.
5.) In India and other places on the subcontinent, there is a huge beauty market to turn brown skin whiter. That's what this advertisement is for: Pond's White Beauty is designed to turn brown skin whiter and pinkish. Because if you're not a white girl your man will leave you! That's what happens to the woman in this commercial--her skin is apparently not white enough, so her boyfriend leaves her for a lighter-skinned mega-bitch. This commercial is part of a series of five commercials which chronicles the leading lady's harrowing quest to turn her skin from icky brown to lily white: