This ad for Scünci in Elle magazine, sent in by Bronwyn H., claims “A full line of hair accessories, that highlight and complement all shades of hair color.”
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 33
Simone Lovelace — July 31, 2010
...except the most common color in the world.
In their defense, hair clips, headbands, etc. usually do come in black. In my experience, black, fake tortoise shell, and light neutral are the default colors for these product. So maybe they just didn't think the black accessories needed to be promoted as something special and exciting.
Shermel — July 31, 2010
The only women I have seen wearing hair clips or scrunchies and such things lived and prospered between 1995-2001.
Jacob — July 31, 2010
Do they make greying white coloured ones?
Foolcard — July 31, 2010
This one is kind of a stretch
SB — July 31, 2010
i agree with simone's comment - this is an ad for the new/varied shades of accessories that will blend with hair colors other than "very dark" which is the typical color and widely available. this is definitely not an issue of bias.
brokensaint — July 31, 2010
I think it is ABSOLUTELY an issue of bias. They say all hair colors. They show three white people hair colors. How is that not bias? And yeah, what about gray/white?
Kayla — July 31, 2010
Keep in mind, black isn't really black, but merely dark drown... maybe they thought the brunette clip could do double duty for black?
Anonymous — July 31, 2010
Black is an absence of color.
brokensaint — July 31, 2010
realistically, though, black hair is not the color shown. it's black.
Greg D. — July 31, 2010
We have to put this ad into the German context. Unlike the US (because of slavery and immigration) and to a lesser extent France (because of migration from former colonies), Germany has comparatively much fewer blacks. So, from a mass marketing perspective the absence of black women from the advertising is not that surprising. Germany on the other had has a sizable population of Turkish descent and Turkish brunettes usually have really dark hair. That's more what missing here.
el.j — August 1, 2010
I find "scunci" a very unfortunate choice for a brand name.
kem — August 3, 2010
Hello, it says "highlight and complement" not MATCH. Anyone with any shade of hair could find one that looks good. This is just nitpicking like foolcard said.