John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN
Of course some of the ads are tasteless, but the human race
does have a lot of tasteless and even grotesque people, and advertising's whole
point is to sell stuff to as many of us as possible.
Perhaps the truly tasteless ads - "Come out of the bone
age" or "House rules" - tell us something about the tribe of
apes to which we belong.
I do think the title here, "Selling White Women,"
itself a bit trivial and overstated. The "white women" business too
completely ignores the army of Asian and African and mixed-background women who
have been mainstays for advertising for years.
We enjoy looking at beautiful women, just as we enjoy
looking at beautiful birds, and the advertising industry takes full advantage
of that.
It would be equally possible to find many examples of truly
beautiful photographs of women used to sell stuff.
Indeed, the "will not go dull and lifeless", while
a screaming, embarrassingly Freudian fantasy, nevertheless is a stunning
profile portrait of a beautiful woman.
