Swiffer-January, 2014

In 2014 it's crazy that I get so excited about seeing an interracial family in an ad but I do because it's still so rare. Just over a year ago that I was standing in my ad agency office trying to convince one of my Swiffer (yes, the magical better than a broom product) marketing clients that it wasn't weird to cast a lighter skinned brown child as the daughter of a darker black man. It was the first time in my career that I had decided to take it upon myself to educate on the nuances of skin color and blatantly push for showing a family that didn't all have exactly the same skin shade whether black or white. Forget about casting a full on interracial couple, that was too much to get into, too many facts and figures about "audience relevancy" to argue against. This morning I woke up to find that one of my former Swiffer clients had posted the latest Swiffer ad on Facebook. And what to my wonderous eyes should appear but an interracial family, clearly black and white, with an amputee dad to boot! Guess we halfsies are RELEVANT NOW :) I have dozens of hypotheses on why they've done this and undoubtedly we have General Mills and their Cheerios ad to thank for leading the way but I'd also like to believe that the reality of interracial families in this country is simply becoming too big a force to continue ignoring. So if big business can help drive social change, I'm all for it. We need all the help we can get. The Swiffer, Philly cream cheese and Cheerios commercials are below--thank you for finally acknowledging we exist.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese-June, 2013

Cheerios-May, 2013