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Lauren Younker
Professor Martha Brenckle
ENC4374-0001
13 November 2015
Advertisements at the Expense of Others
Advertisements that are geared towards a specific audience may end up being offensive
to and disliked by any unintended audiences impacted by the media. Advertising companies
target specific demographics for their work, creating a large possibility that those not within the
specific demographic obtained may be hurt by the desired message. This can be seen in ads that
use race, sexuality, gender, class, or other characteristics to depict the product or service at hand.
Unfortunately, this is very common in advertisements, and has been for most of contemporary
history. Marketing techniques that rely on possible expense of others, especially marginalized
groups of people, are understandably frustrating to those who are receiving the negative effects.
The use of minority cultures in advertising is very real today, in many kinds of rhetoric.
An example of this can be seen in an online ad for a chain of tanning salons, Club Sun Color
Studios, and a special offer they were having for tans around Thanksgiving 2013, which
advertised coloring to look like Native Americans for the Thanksgiving season (Ryan Tanning
Salon Is Super Thankful Native Americans Brought Sexy Color). The marketing team
approached this concept with their intended audience consisting of most likely those who would
use a tanning salons services, possibly white people who may be more likely to use a tanning
salon than other groups of people. However, the unintended audience who was negatively

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impacted by this ad would be Native Americans, whose culture and physical appearance was
used for the benefit of this company.
The text in the ad includes The Indians brought more than just corn to the first
Thanksgiving they brought Sexy Color, and the title of the ad states Have a Colorful
Thanksgiving. Two models are both white females, one dressed up as a pilgrim with paler skin,
the other dressed as a Native American with tanned skin (Ryan Tanning Salon Is Super
Thankful Native Americans Brought Sexy Color). It makes sense that this ad would cause
outrage to anyone who recognizes that this behavior is racist and appropriates Native American
culture. It is hurtful to those who are Native American and may see this as commoditizing their
looks. This is especially outrageous considering the history behind Thanksgiving and the
European colonization of America, and what happened to the indigenous people when settlers
came to the lands. The marketing technique was insensitive, and probably could not be changed
to be appropriate without getting rid of this Sexy Indian idea.
Cultural appropriation of Native American culture is disrespectful and ongoing in the
United States. While appropriation of any culture is not acceptable, it seems that Native
American cultures are used very often without consequence. The idea of the Indian, referring
to indigenous Americans, has been fabricated by white culture as a means of dominance and
erasure (Finders Keepers? Adulteration of Native American Cultures in the Name of Profit).
Club Salon Color Studios should have known not to use an advertising technique at the expense
of another culture, however, the marketing team knew exactly what it was doing. The marketing
director for this ad was actually a Native American man named David Arnett, who responded to
the backlash of the ad with the statement Sorry for being proud of my heritage and sexy color
(Grimes 5 Ridiculously Offensive Ads The Somehow Got Approved). While Arnett may have

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thought this was a good idea, and that his ancestry gave him permission, this ad was distasteful
and ended up not giving the company as much positive publicity as it wanted.
Looking at another example of advertisements not accepted well by viewers, Doves
campaign that revolved around the idea of real beauty launched in 2013 and was not wellloved by everybody. An online video advertisement for this campaign titled Doves Real Beauty
Sketches consisted of an FBI forensic artist sketching various women, first based on how they
described themselves, then based on how a stranger described them (YouTube). When this viral
campaign was out, a lot of positive reviews were up, stating that this encouraged women to
realize that they were more physically beautiful than they may believe. A large societal problem
we currently face is how the beauty ideal, consisting of tall, skinny, fair skinned and haired
women, negatively impacts people, generally women. With this known, Dove wished to use its
presence to address this problem.
However, this ad received a lot of backlash, and for understandable reasons. To start out,
this ad revolves around each persons physical attractiveness, upholding the idea that beauty is
more important than all other characteristics of a person (Stampler Why People Hate Doves
Real Beauty Sketches Video). The stand Dove seems to take is that all women are beautiful
and they should know it. While this is important, its more important for women to know that
their worth is based on outer appearance. Furthermore, by asking women to describe how they
see themselves, then have another person do the same to show the difference, it is implicated that
women are their own worst enemies. And while this may seem true on a personal level, on a
systemic level, it is not. Women are trained throughout life that a certain beauty standard is
whats desirable, resulting in body image issues (Stampler Why People Hate Doves Real
Beauty Sketches Video).

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Another effect of the systemic beauty ideal is that lighter skin is the preferred skin tone.
In Doves video, most of the women are white. These real and beautiful women are in fact a
very specific type of women, mostly white and young (Stampler Why People Hate Doves Real
Beauty Sketches Video). There are three black women in the ad, and two are lighter-skinned,
all are not shown as often as the white women. Women of color are impacted in a greater way by
the beauty ideal and by ads that further it, like this one. Because of that, Dove was in the wrong
to not use a wider variety of women for their campaign. In the end, while Dove is giving the
appearance of caring for the well-being of women and their self-esteems, the goal is to advertise
that the company is behind this campaign, thus women should purchase their products over other
beauty and health products.
Marketing teams who create advertisements generally do so with a certain target audience
in mind, leaving out many groups of people. As seen in Club Sun Color Studios use of cultural
appropriation regarding Native American skin color, its very apparent that racist tactics are used
without hesitation as marketing techniques. It can also be seen that ads targeted towards a
specific audience may not truly encompass the true nature of the audience, or all of the people
who make up the group. Doves Real Beauty Sketches campaign video did not really touch on
female empowerment like it was created to, focusing on the shallower ideals pf physical beauty.
Its also important to note that these ads typically cater towards the gender binary, consisting of
just men and women, leaving out anyone who does not fall into the binary. Those who arent
pleased with ads because they arent being considered have a reason for their discomfort, and
prove that offensive advertising is not the best way to market a product or service.

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Works Cited
Dove US. Dove Real Beauty Sketches | Youre more beautiful than you think (3mins). Online
video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 14 Apr. 2013.
Grimes, A.C. "5 Ridiculously Offensive Ads That Somehow Got Approved." Cracked. Demand
Media, Inc., 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
Ryan, Erin Gloria. Tanning Salon Is Super Thankful Native Americans Brought Sexy Color
Jezebel. 6 Nov. 14. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
Stampler, Laura. Why People Hate Doves Real Beauty Sketches Video. Business Insider.
Business Insider, Inc., 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
Wesaw. Finders Keepers? Adulteration of Native American Cultures in the Name of Profit.
Cultural Survival. Cultural Survival, Inc. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.