RETHINK: Fight The Power

There is a great article over at ebony/jet.com about rethinking the pioneering Johnson Publishing's early ad campaign. Matt Burnett, of Super Genius in Chcago writes; The creative strength of these ads, despite how old-fashioned and downright clumsy they seem today, is in the humor and the audacity of the communication. The message is basically, “you’re not going to believe this, but Black people actually have money to spend!” What gets lost in the vintage art direction is the fearlessness of these ads. They look right into the face of racial stereotypes and just blast away... But what’s amazing is that we would never even think to show that now. It's politically impossible in 2009. And by not being able to talk about it, we've lost the power of that conversation... What makes the ads even more remarkable is that they're laughing at the concept of racism, which is a radical idea, and it has been lost in the struggle since...



Read the entire article here.

Thanks Eric Easter @ Ebony/Jet.com https://sites.google.com/site/mayuradocs/PinIt.png