The first I heard about this campaign and any upset about it was in yesterday’s WaPo. I saw it in print for the first time less than a week ago, also in WaPo.

Ads That Generate a Buzz of Their Own

Not being in any of the same demographics as the show, this is the first version of the ad that I’ve seen, anywhere.

Additionally, the local affiliate’s logo is clearly featured on the ad, so whether or not they are directly responsible for the campaign is less relevant than the fact that they’ve allowed themselves to be associated with it. It’s possible that the network relations/marketing people at DC50 are avid watchers of this crappy show, recognized the character, and therefore the racial overtones of this ad simply escaped their notice. However, since the general purpose of advertising is to attract people to the show who DO NOT ALREADY WATCH, defending it on the basis of, “Duh, you’d know it was a white guy if you watched it” is pretty weak.

The image has clearly been processed in such a way as to darken/shadow the complexions of the actors, and while the girl’s blonde hair clearly gives her away as a Caucasian, the boy is sufficiently obscured such that his race isn’t immediately clear to the target of the ad- people who do not already watch the show. As such, combining that image with that tagline is about as irresponsible as the TIME/OJ Simpson mugshot incident.

The ad campaign has been taken to task because the show last season didn’t do particularly well ratings-wise and many parents thought it was disgraceful that they’d capitalize on a taboo image to draw in viewers. Ratings are up though, so whatever you think about the campaign, its drawing more eyeballs to the show.

Or, there’s a decent chance the shade of the bus shelter made it appear something it wasn’t.

Also, you can breathe easy, alicia, I’ll be updating the story with your comments. I just thought it was a particularly odd choice for a TV station in a majority black media market.

@Nate, not being all that interested in Advertising as a whole, I’ve somehow missed that particular hand-wringing controversy. I suppose that’s a tragedy for some folks, but I’m mostly a computer geek, not a TV geek, so I’d missed that somehow. It happens, I can’t read everything on the intarwebs. Well, not and get my work done ;)