Monday, June 23, 2014

Bad Ads - L'oreal


Is this seriously being marketed in 2014?






A new mascara that allows white girls to shout "hey, look at me, I'm Japanese!"

Cultural appropriation as a marketing tool.

Just awful. Offensive and insulting.

Pretty much straight-up racist.



4 comments:

  1. Gotta disagree with you on this one, Professor Chaos. The whole Japanese manga/anime esthetic is extremely popular among 20-somethings. They're just marketing mascara that facilitates kids to display that esthetic in their own "look." I don't think it's "cultural appropriation" or "racist" any more than it was in the 1960s when everybody adopted British fashion, music, etc. It's just what's cool right now and it happens to be Japanese style.

    What's missing here are the elements of mockery, denigration or making money off the backs of an oppressed people. That's what is needed for true cultural appropriation and racism.

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  2. I believe it is a racial commercial because the speaker says "Mega volume on top, mega volume on bottom" in a stereotypical Asian accent. That accent was definitely a mockery of Japanese accents. It was also a very poor imitation, I might add.

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