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I spent an interesting subway ride today staring at the advertisement across from me, which is evidently a response to all those "Got milk?" ads. It features sick-looking people clustered around a bathroom door and states: "75% of the population is lactose-intolerant, especially people of color. If you are lactose-intolerant, you may have grounds for a lawsuit."
My reactions, more or less in order:
1) A lawsuit?
2) Well, okay, if you were surrounded by ads chirping about how healthy it is to drink something that makes you sick, I can see where the reactions would range from "God, that's irritating" to "take legal action," but that does not make that sentence sound any less strange.
3) When the text is already specifying "especially people of color," why are two of the four people pictured Caucasian? Surely this would be a really logical place to show mostly people who aren't white? Or would a picture showing only non-white people looking sick have racist implications? Clearly advertising is a complex science.
My reactions, more or less in order:
1) A lawsuit?
2) Well, okay, if you were surrounded by ads chirping about how healthy it is to drink something that makes you sick, I can see where the reactions would range from "God, that's irritating" to "take legal action," but that does not make that sentence sound any less strange.
3) When the text is already specifying "especially people of color," why are two of the four people pictured Caucasian? Surely this would be a really logical place to show mostly people who aren't white? Or would a picture showing only non-white people looking sick have racist implications? Clearly advertising is a complex science.
