Diversity Without Pity #2 | Stress-Free TargetStyle Commercial

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I saw this ad, and all I could say was, YES, M’AM!

Click the video below to hear the full commercial.

Let’s look at the optics in which this ad was placed. Black women have historically been placed in positions of hyper-sexuality, yet rarely is it assumes black women have any autonomy when it comes to how they want to be represented. But a lot of things have changed recently.

Artists like Nicki Minaj have taken fellow artists like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift to task for tone-policing her while she simultaneously addresses the double standard, based on race. This raises awareness that while black women are admired for their bodies, hairstyles, and dance moves, those very things are often rewarded if they are on white bodies.

So let’s look at this ad again, because it’s very brief:

Here we have two women of African descent (because they could be from anywhere in the diaspora) gleefully dancing to a version of the old-school dance track Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) by C+C Music Factory. ( I won’t get into the ugly history of Martha Wash, but that’s another reminder of how this ad reflects considerable progress)

They have a well co-ordinated dance sequence that reminds me of my youth, when my girlfriends and I used to come up with dance routines.

And look at the staging, styling, and cinematography. The sky blue background perfectly compliments the women in the foreground, because it contains an undertone of green. That’s so they don’t look like just heads and arms dancing. The styling is modern, and touches on double-denim coming back in style.

Diversity Without Pity is a blog series from IDSL, highlighting media that uses smart design, and considers the diversity of it’s casting without selling the viewer or consumer, short.