Moschino Ads

For those of you who felt that the Lebron James Vogue cover was only borderline racist, I'm sure we can all agree that there is absolutely no amount of subtlety in these ads. When viewed as a whole, these ads represent segregation. The races in these advertisements are not allowed to mix. When viewed individually we can understand why. The Asian and black models are represented as exotic while the white models are represented as perfectly normal. The white models are even allowed to wear more than just two colors unlike the other women.

This probably doesn't even need to be said, but the Asian women in the advertisement ARE ALL WEARING YELLOW! I'm not sure that I need to outline what is racist about that, but in case you missed it, dressing an Asian woman in all yellow is highlighting her ethnicity in a way that makes her an other. She is not a normal woman, because she is first and foremost Asian and that is why she is marked by wearing yellow.

In the black advertisement all of the woman are very dark skinned and have afros. Like the Asian women they all have almost identical hair. Likely because the afros are wigs. The white women however, all have blond hair, but their hairstyles vary. Also, the black ad is the only one to feature a nude model. This is another example of where black female sexuality is made exotic and is allowed to be gazed out openly much more so than other women.

These ads came out around 2007 and because they are relatively new and because they are not at all subtle, I have to wonder: why are these ads intentionally racist? Is it an attempt to be creative or artsy and bring attention to racial issues? Even if that was the case (which I suspect it was not) once again, the intent means very little. The effect of the ad is to make Asian and black women the other when compared to white women. How very fashionable.