By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Anti-racism activist Zulaikha Patel believes advertising agencies which are responsible for adverts found to be racist need to be held accountable.
Patel told the South African Human Rights Commission’s hearing into racism in the advertising industry that the recent hair advert by health and beauty retailer Clicks was just another example of an ad dehumanising black people.
They came under fire some two years ago for labelling black people’s hair as “dry, damaged, frizzy and dull” and white people’s hair as “normal” in an ad campaign for hair products.
The commission began its hearings on Monday.
Patel was first in line and told the investigation that the Clicks ad is an example of discrimination.
“The Clicks advertisement was a direct reinforcement of the very notions that were used within apartheid and colonisation that made blackness to be seen as more inferior, than everything else and something that is not to be seen within the standard of beauty,” she said.
“So the words dry and damaged and frizzy and dull were used to describe a black women’s hair opposed to the other side that showed white women’s hair as normal and flat and which reinforces the anti-blackness which is constructed by colonialism which has stripped black people of their dignity.”
She said the time has come for the industry to be held responsible.
“This advertisement I believe should be one where we see accountability because it is not a first of its kind. There has been a pattern that repeats itself where we have seen advertisements that insult a majority of the demographics of our population, especially in a country like ours where we come from a past that is not completely a past because remanence of that past still finds itself in today’s society.”
Meanwhile EFF’s Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi says the advertising industry must be fined R50 billion for perpetuating racism.
“A finding must be made that all these brands redirect their ad-spend on [sic] black media owners because the patterns at the moment are irrational, idiotic and racist.
“For having practised racism, the advertising industry since the advent of democracy, they must be forced to pay compensation as a sign of remorse. It must be directed to black communities. We have a proposal that the whole sector must be fined an amount of no less than R50 billion for racism, which can be proven.”
He said 50% of the amount must be given to the SABC, and the other 50% must be distributed among black-owned community radio stations.
“If we do not reach practicable punishment, we will never resolve the racism we see in the advertising sector.”
Ndlozi said: “A responsible government by now would have regulated [the industry]. We need rational spending in advertising.”