It can date back to 100 years ago when a company was trying to sell soap, where they portrayed a little white girl talking to a little black girl who was dirty and saying, “Why doesn’t your mamma wash you with Fairy Soap.” These types of ads have been going on for years, yet it seems that nothing can stop them. However, people are recently deciding to step up and do what is right. In “‘Coolest Monkey in the Jungle’: the long history of racism in advertising” Suzanne Cords, a writer for the Australian company DW, writes, “Many clichés surrounding ethnicity are still lodged in people's minds and not easily dispensed with. Using the hashtag #notoracism, web users can denounce racism, whether in advertising or elsewhere.” By using this hashtag, people are coming together to make a change. Racist advertisements always caused hatred, but most people did not know what to do about it, or they were too scared to speak up. It was more intimidating to speak up back in the day than it is now. This is also in Suzanne’s work for an article where she states examples of different racist ads and how people responded to them. Some examples include H&M with their Monkey sweatshirt worn by an African-American boy, Ferrero saying that their white chocolate campaigned “Germany chooses white”, Dove showing their new gel which seemed to turn dark skin to white skin, or Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics showing an asian women pushing a black man …show more content…
During one’s life, they are going to see a sexist advertisement. These ads are everywhere you look nowadays. Back in the day, these ads were more prevalent in society and caused everyone to have a certain stance on gender roles in our society. People’s thought on this matter came from the roles of women and men from a long time ago. Karlene Ferrante, head of the Department of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin states, “This assumption, that advertising speaks in a male voice to female consumers reflects a basic patriarchal organizing principle of the sexual division of labor” (Ferrante 8). It has been very clear that there has been a predicament in the field of advertising related to sexism. The thought that men are superior to women is extremely prevalent in today's society. It was the norm for the male to be working hard or look tough, while it was the woman's job to be the nurturer and take care of the family. Women were and always will be seen as fragile or physically weak people. An example would be a commercial for ketchup. In an article called “Sexism in Advertising” written by Raquel M., a writer from Understanding Media, states that a company created a new ketchup that was easier to open with the tagline, “You mean a woman can open it? Easily-without a knife blade, a bottle opener, or even a husband! All it takes is a dainty grip, an easy, two-finger twist- and the catsup is ready to