Monday, October 31, 2011

White model, white word...?

Do you think there is any relationship between the whiteness of the model and the fact that the word "strong" is also in white? Why wouldn't it be the same color as the truck?
There is definitely a relationship between the race of the model and the color of the word "strong." For starters, in America, who is strong? Powerful? It's a delicate issue, but white people have most of the power in America, and most of them are men. It's just a fact. Our first president of any race other than white wasn't elected until a few years ago, and for the majority, Congress is made up of white men. Most CEOs are white and male. One of the biggest examples of this white power is described in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. The main character is a young black man, and he works in a paint factory that makes and supplies the white paint that is put on all the memorials and the White House. To make the paint its whitest and purest, a drop of black is mixed in it. Can you say underlying message? The U.S. is governed by whites, but it is only strong because there are black people working and living here as well. In short, the color white in America is portrayed and viewed as powerful and strong, which is why the model is also white. They reciprocate one another. "Strong" isn't the same color as the truck because the truck represents masculinity, and Soft and Dri is deodorant for women, so it's marketed to women. You can take the same message from Invisible Man and apply it to men and women in the power struggle. Women are the black paint figuratively and literally. "Behind every good man is an even better woman." Women play important roles in America, and although the situation has improved, the fact is a woman still makes 75 cents to every dollar a man makes. That is also why the truck is black. You can reference that back to World War II. When the men went to war, the women went to factories and made weapons and trucks and everything else. It's strong and powerful like a man, but it isn't a man--it's a woman. It represents the strength of women. In this ad, Soft and Dri is saying that women are and can be both strong and beautiful.

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