On Advertising and Representation

Work in Progress

Ignoring for a moment the ethics of not hiring diverse models, though I will get back to it, is hyper targeted advertising based on your appearance demographics a good thing? Is that representation or exploitation? Is it okay if its generic toothpaste and not cool if its . . . I am actually trying to come up with what would feel weird. Teenagers feature in proactive (acne) commercials, older women in menopause medication commercials, old people in diabetes commercials. Maybe the thing that would be weird would be being like a mixed race couple with two dogs and one kid and every single commercial features essentially your family doing the things you like. That actually sounds like a really boring Black Mirror plot - ‘technology has gone too far and now ads are really boring and a little bit creepy’.