Featuring models with colors in a Skin White advertisement: What’s good and bad?

Acceptance of beauty diversity has become an emphasis in a progressing society that still widely embraces a more popular culture of consuming skin whitening products in the Philippines. On why Filipinos have stagnant skin color preference, traces of this consumer behavior and attitude due to extrinsic pressure was explained in previous literature. On the other hand, currently observed trends in advertising concepts focus on inclusivity. On one local skin whitening product Facebook page, a video advertisement showcased models with different skin colors causing opposing reactions and views from the netizens. This needed to be analyzed to determine new consumer perspectives. With this, there were 383 comments systematically selected from the post that underwent six-step levels of thematic analysis. From thereon, six themes emerged: (1) beauty perceptions, (2) capitalist view, (3) change in advertisement concept, (4) mislabeling and misrepresentation, (5) polarized opinions, and (6) related trends. This study proved that from the varying perspectives of Filipino consumers, signs of diverse skin color representation in a whitening advertisement showed considerable appreciation from them, but some opposed that the advocacy was inconsistent with its purpose. As supported by collected comments and identity theories, the study concluded that there is a blooming progress towards the public’s skin color perception. As suggested, it is to be considered mostly that the content focus of the advertisement must be aligned to the brand they are selling