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17 Comments

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Plain White Tease

By Jonathan Goldsbie

2008_3_16JamminItOldSchool.jpg

Adobe Photoshop
The uncompromised clarity of skin.
The ultimate in luxury.
A truly flawless complexion. Ultra-refined texture. Perfect clarity. Cutting-edge skincare backed by 90 years of unrivaled research by Shiseido, a worldwide leader in the development of skin-brightening products.
Shiseido
White Lucent™ Skincare
White skin.
White power.

Photo taken by Jonathan Goldsbie on a Yonge-University-Spadina line subway.

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Comments

  • wardnikoff

    Awesome. I love this kind of shit.

  • spacejack

    This is nothing. In the olden days, ads were complete fabrications – idealized, hand-painted illustrations.
    Maybe back then, people would deface posters by pasting a “Guache” stickers on ads, just so you’d know they weren’t 100% true to life. Or maybe they didn’t.

  • Miles Storey

    Great way to make a point.

  • kknights

    “white power” … are you kidding me? Im amazed this got past their legal department.

  • paigesix

    Mrah, that’s nothing compared to the skin bleaching products my Filipino coworker used when she still lived in SE Asia. All made by Unilvever. You know, the same company that parades fat/ugly/real people around to sell Dove?
    But at the same time, everyone from Lush to Khiels sells products designed to illuminate and even-out skin tone. This “white power” argument is just being sensationalistic to get attention.

  • Ellstar

    @Kknights The sticker with ‘white power’ on it is not part of the original ad.

  • Mark Ostler

    Excellent.

  • james a

    Hehe awesome.. I noticed this myself on the subway last week and cursed the fact that I didn’t have a camera on me.
    I wonder if there’s more than one? Either way, what an awesome prank.

  • MariaPD

    Maybe I’m daft, but I don’t understand the point of this post. Why are people saying it is awesome? Because it says Adobe Photoshop? Because it says White Power? So what if it says it? I really don’t understand it.

  • impresa

    Am I wrong in thinking this ad is attracting more than the usual share of defacement? I have seen dozens of them with “slut” or similar scrawled across them and scars markered on.

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    kknights: Exactly what Ellstar said. It should be noted, though, that “White Lucent” is indeed the name of one the actual products being advertised.
    Maria: It’s an example of what’s known as “culture jamming,” which is a creative intervention or transformation of an advertisement in order to make the ad more honest by turning it into a critique of itself and its social context. In this case, this was an ad for Shiseido-brand skin-lightening creams. Someone covered up the Shiseido logo at the top with the Photoshop logo in order to emphasize, among other things, that this would be more appropriate as an ad for photo-doctoring software. A sticker was also placed in the lower-right corner to emphasize the inherent racist implications of an ad that promotes whiteness as the beauty ideal.

  • MariaPD

    Holy guacamole, I totally didn’t get it! Thanks.

  • torontothegreat

    A sticker was also placed in the lower-right corner to emphasize the inherent racist implications of an ad that promotes whiteness as the beauty ideal.

    OR maybe it’s just a makeup ad targeted at white women :O
    THE HORROR!
    and OMFG, they use PHOTOSHOP to enhance advertising?
    thanks for the enlightenment :P

  • matty

    “Maria: It’s an example of what’s known as “culture jamming,” ”
    bwahahah. You said it, not me. Was Torntoist really that brainwashed growing up from mid-90s ad-busters magazines to the point where this crap makes up half their content? I am assuming yes.

  • montauk

    torontothegreat – the “White Lucent” line does not refer to “makeup for white people” (which is almost virtually all makeup anyway) – it’s actually a line of whitening products. You can get more details about the line at the Shiseido website, but it’s just one of many similar lines (Estee Lauder’s “Cyber White”, L’Oreal’s “White Perfect”, Dior’s “DiorSnow Pure Perfect”) etc targeted at women with darker skin. They are extraordinarily popular and common in Asia, where they are labeled more frankly as “skin whitening” products or bleaches, and have an increasing market in North America due to immigration.

  • edgar

    What’s funny is that Shiseido is a Japanese company, which probably does not promote White Power in any way, but Japanese Power.

  • Jonathan Goldsbie

    Regardless of the nationality of the company, the advertisement and, one could argue, the products themselves are very much about reinforcing the concept of White supremacy.