Skin in advertisement was too white - deemed 'racist'

In an ad on the cosmetics chain Kicks’ website, there were two pictures of a woman’s face, a so-called before and after image. In the first picture, the woman’s skin color was supposed to be darker, and in the second, lighter with the text “my skin has never been finer”. Now the ad is deemed discriminatory by the Advertising Ombudsman.

It is an ad about a customer’s skincare habits that has caused upset. The ad had the headline “Before & After: Liv’s new skin health” and was about hyperpigmentations being treated.

The pigmentation has improved a lot, “but what has actually become even more important is the foundation”. According to the woman, her skin has “never been finer than today”, something that is said to have been achieved with different skincare products and her skincare routine.

A total of three people have reported the ad to the Advertising Ombudsman. What they are upset about is that the ad’s message is alleged to suggest that lighter skin is more beautiful and more desirable.

“It is racist and completely unacceptable for the advertiser to convey that message,” writes one of the individuals.

Another complainant believes that the ad resembles ads that appear in countries such as Asia, where lighter skin is considered more beautiful than darker skin.

New image policy

Kicks argues that the customer’s experience has been used as an illustrative example to demonstrate the effect of the products, and that the after-images are lighter because they were taken on another occasion under different conditions.

The company assures that it has never intended to portray lighter skin as the ideal and claims that it considers it important to counteract objectification and ensure representation.

To avoid it happening again, they have adopted a new image policy and strive to be completely free from retouched content.

RO: Discriminatory

Despite Kicks’ statement, the Advertising Ombudsman’s Opinion Board believes that the combination of the images and the text gives the impression that a lighter skin tone is better and more desirable. Therefore, they argue that the ad is discriminatory in terms of ethnic origin and thus violates article 2 of the International Chamber of Commerce’s rules for advertising and marketing communication.

The decision was unanimous.

Researcher: Too many whites in advertising

On Thursday, Samnytt reported on a group of Swedish researchers who have concluded that there are too many whites in Swedish tourist advertising.

“If the purpose of the ad is to profile a hiking trail for foreign tourists, it is usually a white nuclear family that is shown, while ads for education often feature Asian people in the pictures,” says Sayaka Osanami Törngren, a docent in international migration and ethnic relations at Malmö University, to forskning.se.