Society likes to swing from one outrage to another. Outrage is like an engine that drives modern society. Was it always thus?
There may be different outrages for different parts of society on different days, but it's always something.
Right now, part of society is outraged that a beautiful young "white" woman is appearing in an advertisement. I saw someone complaining that there are millions of beautiful "black" women, so it's a racist disaster that the company chose to hire a "white" woman this time. One ad. Out of millions of ads that show people of almost every description imaginable. And this is a problem? Oh, please.
I saw one guy even claiming that it's a sign we're heading for racist lynchings and genocide of "brown" people. Such drama! Over an ad.
A couple of years ago, a different segment of society was outraged that a particular man was in a different company's ads. Again, millions of ads, with all sorts of approaches, and this one ad campaign was worth getting mad over? I think not.
The most useful ads are interesting in some way. They get attention by being interesting rather than boring. Don't be boring.
Interesting is good. Find interesting people (or things) you believe will help your brand. "Interesting" doesn't have a "race" or a type. I always loved the Clydesdale beer ads, which were beautiful and interesting. To me. And this ad segment is one of my all-time favorites for reasons I can't quite explain. It hits me in the funny bone, and it's interesting to me because it cracks me up. I laugh every time I watch it. Yeah, I'm weird.
Beauty, which is subjective, is also interesting. Looking at beauty makes me feel better than some other kinds of "interesting" do. People who rail against beauty are pathetic and have bigger problems they need to address before they worry about who appears in ads.
I'm not sure how well ads work, though. I'm sitting here not drinking any beer or wearing any mall-brand clothes (unless I coincidentally picked them up in Goodwill).
