Dove, a Unilever beauty company, has always sought to promote beauty for women of all shapes, sizes and colors and has included models of such in many campaigns advertisements for their beauty products. Yet an October 2017 ad sparked controversy over the portrayal of non-white women in these. In a body lotion ad, a black model wore a T-shirt the color of her skin. She then proceeded to take off her shirt, and underneath the shirt was now a white model wearing a shirt with her skin tone before taking her shirt off to transform into an Asian model with her correct skin tone. Some viewers considered it racist, while others, including the model, did not dispute this and felt that the advertisement was exaggerated, which brings us to the question: how could an advertisement featuring a diverse set of models have been perceived as racist? A review and application of Stuart Hall's cultural studies theory will help us study such a thing. This article will cover the theory, what happened during and in response to the advertisement, apply it to the advertisement, and prescribe a way to prevent similar controversies in the future. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Cultural studies, a theory of mass communications by sociology professor Stuart Hall, is a form of neo-Marxist criticism that argues that mass media produce consensus from the masses (the public) to maintain dominant ideologies, structures that help us interpret, understand and make sense of social existence. According to cultural studies theory, the media allows more powerful people to remain in power by persuading less powerful people to remain disempowered. The history of the theory dates back to when the Frankfurt School theorists, who were strong supporters of Karl Marx and his beliefs in economic determinism, the belief that human behavior was shaped by differences in available financial resources and power gaps between wealthy and poor, thus creating the second component of the theory, which shows the worst side of capitalism. This is where the term “cultural industries” comes from, which includes producers of television, radio, film, newspapers and other forms of media. These cultural industries produce and reproduce values ​​and ideas through the influence of hegemony on society. This oscillation, production and reproduction is unintentional; the media simply doesn't monitor it and reinforce it. However, the theory prescribes things that people can do. They can simply consume the content produced by the media and not raise any questions about the message, which is called operating within the dominant code, even if in this component, so there may not be a resulting change. They could apply a negotiable code by looking for exceptions to what is the norm, even if the masses generally still follow the ideology perpetuated by the media. Finally, people can change the message by substituting an opposing code and deviate from the norm, thus overcoming prejudices and going against the establishment (Griffin, 2009). While this theory may apply primarily to news, it can also be used to understand reactions to other forms of media, including advertising. In October 2017, Dove released a video advertisement for a new body lotion, and to do so, the video featured several models with different skin colors taking off their shirts, which matched their skin tones, and then yesthey transformed into each other sequentially. One of the models, a black model, took off her shirt and transformed into a white woman. Naomi Blake, a makeup artist, saw the advert on Facebook and commented that the advert was "tone-deaf". Another viewer saw this advertisement as a cleansing product and suitable for people of all skin colors, as the white model took off her shirt and transformed into another non-white woman. One commenter said: “I think they meant it to be for all skin types… he went from black to white to another race (BBC, 2017).” However, not everyone agreed that there was a racist intent in the advertising. The model, Lola Ogunyemi, a Nigerian woman who grew up in the United States, spoke out and explained that she didn't think this was racist at all and that she was thrilled that she had been offered a role in a global beauty campaign, Ogunyemi told the article for The Guardian, "the experience I had with the Dove team was positive, I had a lot of fun on set. All the women in the shoot understood the concept and the overall goal: to use our differences to highlight the fact that all the skins deserve kindness." However, she said Dove should be more careful and explain itself better in future to avoid misunderstandings of its advertisements. “There's definitely something to be said here about how advertisers need to look beyond the surface and consider the impact their images can have, particularly when it comes to marginalized groups of women. It's important to examine whether your content demonstrates that your consumer's voice is not only heard, but also valued. Dove apologized, stating, "An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in thoughtfully depicting women of color. We deeply regret the offense it caused (Ogunyemi, 2017)." To follow Ogunyemi's advice and listen to the voice of the consumer, we must study why some may have perceived this advertisement as racist. As we apply cultural studies theory to this artifact, we must also look at the history, past and recent, of beauty standards and beauty products in general as the components are applied. The first component of the theory, that is, allowing the most powerful to remain in power by weakening the less powerful, can be interpreted when models change their skin color, while this may not happen have been understood as racist, considering that a white woman transforms in another black woman seconds after being born, seeing a black woman become a white woman may mean for some a "cleaner" woman than the woman before viewers, proving that this white woman could be better than the black woman . A historical example of a powerful group holding power over another group by standards of race and beauty is when white British settlers colonized Australia and considered the native Aboriginal people to be unsanitary and dirty. . Kathleen Jackson, a woman of Wiradjuri origin, wrote about her childhood, where her grandmother always made her look her best when she was in public. This was due to her grandmother's upbringing under the Aboriginal Protection Act, a policy that allowed Aboriginal children to be removed from their families if state officials deemed them "too unhygienic". Beauty standards were already drawn along class, gender and racial lines, and these expectations were used to justify colonial expansion and oppression of Native peoples through European economic and cultural ideals, and Aboriginal people were seen as a unhygienic and dirty population. and to avoid removal, ichildren were created to be beautiful by colonial standards. To go even further, European colonialists believed it was possible to “select” indigenous characteristics (Jackson, 2015). Although these policies are not in place today, the powerful have remained in power and dominate the beauty industry, as in Western media ethnic minorities are unemployed more often than the white majority (Jewell, 2017). And within the beauty industry today, there is yet another component of Stuart Hall's cultural studies that has helped maintain the dominant ideology through the subtle oscillation of capitalist practices. The second component of the theory, the reflection of capitalism at its worst, is visible in beauty products and promotion. Women may never live up to beauty standards because of a physical characteristic, be it weight, scars or skin color. Unfortunately, throughout history, capitalism has played a role in exploiting women to purchase products to try to feel truly beautiful, whether they were buying the product for themselves to feel better, or promoting racist ideals. An advertisement for Pears soap, from 1884, depicts a white child bathing a black child. After the bath, the black child's body turned white, showing how "clean" he is now. Another advertisement, this time for Nulla-Nulla, an Australian brand of soap from 1901, depicting an Aboriginal woman making a scary face, and all around her, a slogan surrounds her that says: "Knocks dirt on the head ". Additionally, the woman wore a sign that read “dirty” to indicate that she was “dirty,” a European colonial view. This was only for this product, however, as Nulla-Nulla's slogan was "Australia's White Hope, the best soap for the home" (Jackson, 2015). In another example, an advertisement for Cook's Lightning Soap, showed an older white woman washing dirt off a small child, whose skin turned from a dirty shade to a white shade. (Mitchell, 2017) And outside the window was a line of children who may have simply been very dirty, but could pass for black. And in addition to this controversial advertising campaign, Dove has partnered with Fair & Lovely, a company that produces skin whitening products sold in over forty countries (Conor, 2017). Overall, capitalist marketing and advertising have insisted throughout history that darker skin signifies dirtiness while white skin signifies purity and beauty. The most notable component of this theory that can be applied to this artifact is the hegemonic nature of this advertisement that several viewers interpreted. With a history of the beauty industry perpetuating non-white people, particularly women and children, as falling short of beauty standards and as women who need to wash their skin more, the dominant group, primarily white women, it will be maintained as an ideal standard of beauty, cleanliness and “normality”. Jaywant Singh, professor of marketing at Kingston University, said in an interview with The Independent: "Modern racial and gender prejudices have morphed into unconscious biases, and the popular reaction to the Dove advert reflects this. At first glance, The Dove advertising appears racist or, more simply, poorly executed by a culturally insensitive agency.” Some of these standards may not be as obvious as you would find in a historical artifact, but there are still subtle ways in which these notions can be perpetuated, not only in the controversial artifact involving bubble bath, but also in Dove's recent past. In 2011, Dove released an advertisement featuring three models,, 2017)..