And why is the Asian girl the only one not looking at the camera?

I have not been encouraged by the mocking I've seen of this online.

Unfortunately, it's already been turned into a meme with awful connotations. If you've got the energy to look, a few of them are here:
http://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2011/10/meme-watch-were-a-culture-not-a-costume-parody-posters/#page/1

I was trying to think of a really empowering female costume for my little daughter, and that made me think of a Native American. Perhaps as an entre to learning about local tribes. But then I was concerned about whether if I dressed her as a Native American, that would be perceived as culturally insensitive (she is not Native American, but half Chinese and European). I hope that SI can provide me some insights... I think that dressing up as  other characters is an important part of childhood, and I don't want her to dress as a "Disney Princess" for as long as I can provide her with other options!!!

So, only costumes based on my own culture's myth are ok? Can I dress as a pimp without the subtext that whites are pimps? Why can't I dress as a geisha without the subtext that Aisans are geisha?

What is the range of inoffensive costumes, if stereotypes are excluded? Sci-Fi and fantasy only?

i would never have even been able to tell the girl in the first picture was a vampire without the supporting image....

I agree that insensitive stereotyping is frequent at Halloween, and a few examples are visible on the placards, but I think there's also a certain reductionism going on in this campaign. I'm not sure if the Asian student should necessarily look at the geisha and think "That's not representative of my culture". One should of course avoid upsetting people needlessly, but the way it's phrased in this campaign it almost seems as if the girl in the geisha outfit was trying to dress up like an Asian rather than just a geisha.

Pretty unrelated, but does anyone else remember the STARS program from high school?  A different one than the organization mentioned here--I remember it being an acronym for 'Students Today Aren't Ready for Sex' (pfffft)

I think this type of ad campaign is preaching to the choir and serves to only reaffirm the opinion that minorities are overly sensitive. No one is upset behind the sexist costumes created for women to wear and the lack of options otherwise. 

I read SI on a regular basis, and I personally love this blog for many reasons. I never bothered to look at the comments before, but recently I started to. I also never posted a comment here before.
But after seeing the comments that some people write, I really wonder if they even read what SI is all about. It's as if some of you people read without absorbing or thinking at what you're reading.
I have now even greater admiration for the editors in continuing to write and post and not feeling discouraged by the massive level of ignorance that goes on in the comment section.

And FYI, for those of you who *still don't get it* why cultural appropriation and racialized Halloween costumes are *BAD* (i.e. RACIST): anti-racism is not something you should expect to learn and be taught from POC. It's a process that you take responsibility for as a white privileged person. YOU need to do the work to find out why your behaviors and/or statements are inappropriate. The internet is full of amazing resources, educate yourself.

    I look at dressing up as way to actively immerse yourself in a story or culture in a way you can't by just passively reading or watching a documentary. I loved Purim as a kid because I got to be a part of acting out the story of Esther and Mordechai instead of just listening to it. 
    Here in America, we pride ourselves on being a melting pot of cultures, but many people seem very resistant to any actual melting and blending of flavors. Cultures living side by side in our country and never being allowed to blend because we are too afraid of offending each other (ie. too afraid of each other) only serves to promote racism.  
    If your intent with a costume is to make a joke at the expense of another person or culture, or to make a "sexy" version of another person's traditional garb, then you should think twice about whether that would really be funny to anyone. On the other hand, if your intent is to celebrate and showcase the art and skill of another culture by dressing as them or imitating their artistic motifs, then I see no harm in that. 
    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. 

Like a lot of other people, I'm on the fence with the geisha costume -- I was talking to some coworkers about it, though, since we work in a high traffic area for Halloween costumes, and we couldn't make up our minds on the issue either. While it's definitely, definitely wrong and racist to dress up like a non-specific member of another race, are costumes like geisha, luchadors, mounties, hula dancers, or Bavarian lederhosen, really racist?

I think that people who dress up as these for Halloween aren't as misguided as people who costume as other races -- I think, instead, they're picking up on the costumed aspect embedded in these other cultures.

http://memebase.com/2011/10/28/internet-memes-its-a-classic/

So recently on Yahoo!News, there was an example of "most creative" celebrity costumes. One included a black pro-football player in "white" face. This was not considered offensive, yet a white man going in "black" face would be offensive. I understand the power structure argument, but it still seems inappropriate to me.

Yeah...because these costumes mean that these people are saying that EVERY black girl is a thug, etc.  Please.  If it doesn't apply to you, then it isn't about you, is it?  I don't see a sign that says "I'm dressing this way because all black people dress like this."  And yeah, not all Japanese women are Geisha.  So we're not allowed to dress like a Geisha?  Better not wear lederhosen and drink beer, becaus not all Germans are like that.  Better not put on a grass skirt for a luau and do the white person's hula: a) you don't know how to hula and b) not every Hawaiian wears a grass skirt or does hula.  Better not wear green for St. Patrick's Day, because not all Irish people like the color green.

Some of this just makes me feel like if someone dressed up in a swan dress, there'd be a picture of an Icelandic female holding one of these signs.  *rolls eyes*  "I'm dressing like Bjork...not like all Icelandic chicks.  Get over yourself."