#advertising-ethics

#advertising-ethics

Almost a decade ago I decided to quit my well-paid job in advertising in order to pursue a precarious career in freelance journalism. The merits of that decision are up for debate but the real stupidity is in how I quit my job: I wrote a rather cringeworthy column for the Guardian about my meaningless job in advertising and publicly proclaimed that I'd decided to quit.

The ad begins with a voiceover saying, "To those who might scratch day and night. To those whose skin will feel dried out even by water," alongside extreme visuals of scratched and cracked Black skin. "Try to take a shower with the new Sanex skin therapy," the ad continues, cutting to visuals of a White woman showering (sans bodily ailments), "Relief could be as simple as a shower," it concludes.