Disruptive Dove ad

Dear black child, you wake up to too much every single day. Do not lose heart. It won’t be like this forever. We are here to reclaim our dignity one ad at a time.

Kind regards a fellow black child.

This is a short letter to all black people and the future black child. We won’t always have the most disturbing and antagonising adverts, brought on by agencies and creative directors who feel they can do whatever they please in their positions power.

Whilst it’s said that Dove has made a distasteful advert apparently it’s not the first time. Six years prior to this advert they had another racist and disgusting advert. Meaning that six years ago we might not have been as “woke” as we are now, since we don’t remember dragging them on Social Media. But I would much rather think we were not as vocal as we are today. We were still in our passive slumber and not willing to unpack racism as we are now. Now we see people writing books and realising albums depicting the very essence of how disgruntled we really are. Activism has evolved from rallies and marches with colourful and riveting placards to intellectual property and rightfully so.

Social Media has also allowed all those who might have been heard previously the opportunity to be heard and seen. The opportunity to say; “not on my watch”. The opportunity to question whatever is put out there. There is also a plot twist here. The idea that people need to create their own products so that the oppressed group can rise. The opportunity of inclusive activity and not exclusivity within our society. And also an opportunity to state that black as well as any other skin is important and that all skin colours belong.  My question to the black people is what do the “appropriate” adverts look like? What do you want to hear and why do you want to hear and see that? Because we can jump, scream, kick and shout until we are pale in the face but get know where in redirecting the wrongs to work in our favour.

Our re-appropriation need to be directed to the level that we can be proud of. Where we can dictate the change and where we are looking to get the change we truly want to see in our own worlds.

I thank you for reading this far. Place your comments and suggestions in the comments below.  

(All images sourced off Twitter)