#RacismoNeon: The only time advertising features indigenous culture is on charity ads

4,000 posters have appeared across Mexico city with the #RacismoNeon (Neon Racism) challenging the advertising community to produce less racist messaging. With headlines such as ‘Whites are 10% of the population but are in 70% of the ads’ or “If advertising reflects society, then advertising is racist.” Some Mexican brands choose to feature light skinned models to represent their Mexican products, ranging from beer to designer clothing. This so-called “aspirational advertising” has become common practice for most advertising agencies in Mexico, and #RacismoNeon wants agencies to realize that they are re-enforcing racist and colonial thinking by selecting models with light skin to appear in the majority of advertising messages.

The ‘Racismo Neon’ social media pages are on Twitter, Instagram y Facebook are designed to create conversation amongst workers in the advertising industry and have them discuss ways to remove colonial thinking such as white superiority from advertising messages.