'Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

Here is my list of advertisements among different media outlets for the week:

1. Kohl's Store Advertisement Magazine: There were White and African-American models, though all of them were very fair-skinned and wore very preppy clothes, making them look exactly like the White people. Even the children were light-skinned. I noticed there was a total of one to two Asian people used, as well as one to two Hispanic people used throughout the entire magazine. The African-American people were about a one to three ratio to the White people in the magazine. 

2. TRESemmé advertisement on the Internet (Seventeen website): They show a brunette girl, advertising their new line of shampoos and conditioners for different hair colors. They had shampoos/conditioners for brunettes, and shampoos/conditioners for blondes. They had no inter-racial advertising, let alone products. Their products were obviously aimed at White women.

3. Maybelline commercial on Television: This commercial was for their new line of foundation. They had the Adriana Lima on the commercial, the winner of America's Next Top Model (I think, not 100% sure). Anyways, the commercial had predominantly White women in it. There were a few shots of African-American women, but no close-ups showing the entire face, like the White women who were shot up close to show the "no pores" aspect to the foundation. They did show an entire line of shades for the foundation, and there were darker shades for darker-skinned women. But overall, there were only small snippets of women of color, none up-close or focused.

4. Victoria's Secret Spring Casual 2009 Catalogue: Out of 53 pages, this cataloge had maybe a handful of women of color in here. A few of them were the same models in different outfits. Each African-American had their own outfit, or section of the page. There were a couple pages where there were only African-American women on it, and no White women, but that was it. I did not see any Asian women. There might have been one or two Hispanic women in the catalogue, but if they were, they were fair-skinned, not directly obvious of their race. Most of the African-American models were of lighter skin, although a few were darker. 

5. Advertisements in the Oklahoma Daily: Although there were only a few advertisements in the Oklahoma Daily for today (4/4), all of them had White people in them. One was for the Cottages, and it showed a group of White girls standing around at a bar-b-que eating. There may be more diverse ads on different days, but today's had no diverse advertisements. 

6. Sonic Commercial on TV: There are two White men as the main characters. Even the other ones with other characters are all White.

7. BK Burger Shots Commercial on TV: Mostly White characters, with one Asian girl among several White girls oogling the guy's burger.

8. Prada Ad in The New York Magazine: The ad features all White women dressed similar. All of the women are very fair-skinned and stick-thin.

9. Guitar Hero ad on ESPN: Shows famous athletes jamming out to the new Guitar Hero. Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, and Tony Hawk--very diverse.

10. Allstate TV ad on TV: African-American host showing the history of U.S. recessions. Shows pictures of African-Americans, Whites, Asians, Hispanics. Shows a scene of kids in a museum of all different races and genders. This commercial is very diverse. 

Overall, I didn't see very much diversity. The most diverse advertisements I saw were on ESPN, or channels playing sports. Most of the fashion magazines and ads for women had an overruling majority of White women. I think some aspects of advertising have become more diverse, and others are lagging behind. For beauty, I think the companies see White itty bitty fair-skinned women as beautiful. African-American women may be beautiful in different ways, but companies have not grasped that concept quite yet. It looks like the ads are stretching to be diverse, by saying 'oh, we have our quota of diverse people, that'll do.' I think someday ads will come around and there will be more diversity. It just takes awhile to catch on, because these companies are out to make money. And for so long, having just White people in ads made money. But now that our society is becoming more and more diverse every day, they are seeing that predominantly White ads need to be spiced up a bit.