Berek says:

I had to look several times before I understood the problem. Yes, at first I thought it was racist and objectionable. (I’m white.) But after a closer look I understood the “before and after” was referring to the skin samples and not the ladies. If I were Dove, I’d redesign the ad ASAP to avoid any further misunderstandings.

Anon says:

Is it overt? Is it intended? Not at all. But the visual you are seeing is not an accident. In the ski industry, I work in a technical field alongside very talented designers, much like a company the quality of Dove would employ. I have learned that designers don’t design by accident. Otherwise, they would be us regular folks without any design talent.

The page is brown to light from left to right and from back to front. The effect is constant through the women, the floor, the displayed swatches. My experience tells me that for a designer at this level, the visual was definitely intended. Now it likely was not intended for reasons of visual and not of racism but how many of us “study” an ad to make sure we saw what was intended? Simply scanning past this had can have a subtle effect.

A white designer could easily make this ad based solely on the color visuals without understanding the historical and social implications. Further more, they would likely never make an effort to understand these issues for it is something they are unlikely to deal with on any regular basis.

Parents don’t teach their kids that light people are better than dark people, but kindergarteners (of many colors) routinely pick photos of light skin people being smarter, prettier and more trustworthy even today. They watch TV, movies and advertisements.

Here is how that can happen:

Are my co-workers racist? No, but their children don’t see me, other black or other minority adults invited into their home (unless it is a 40 person BBQ). The children all learn without instruction that white adults are invited inside the house. Minority adults are mostly relegated to performing yard or other services. A coworker’s child was asked if he remembered me. He yelled “COPS!”, his favorite TV show, in response. The parent was very embarrassed and would never have taught such a thing. However it also escaped that parent, living in an extremely white community, that it might not be a good idea that a child’s predominant exposure to minorities is watching them get arrested by police officers on a TV show. Surely the parent knows that kids like police and police related stuff and didn’t see beyond that.

Is it intended? No way.

Did it have an unintended racial effect? It definitely did.