By now, you’ve probably seen the screen grab of the Dove soap ad with the black woman who takes off her pullover and turns white. No sooner was it posted on Facebook last week than it was denounced, over the implication that washing black skin with Dove will turn it white.
Dove immediately apologized for “missing the mark” in what was supposed to be a campaign celebrating diversity. But the black model in the ad says Dove may have apologized without explaining the full story. The screen grab was taken from a video that showed three women — black, white, and another woman of color — each transitioning into the other in a very different message than the still shot.
Dove still messed up in failing to recognize how offensive the out-of-context image was, but they’re not alone in falling victim to the viral reactions to social media, like the fake news stories from Russia on Facebook, to say nothing of a president ruling by tweet.
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Remember when Trump issued his immigration executive order and the cab drivers at Kennedy Airport went on strike to protest? Uber the same day suspended its peak period pricing in a move instantly perceived as stealing the cabbies’ business. Tweets immediately went out to delete Uber — even though the price change had come hours after the strike ended. No matter. It was still a PR nightmare followed by even more self-inflicted bad press by the rideshare giant.
The late founder of Breitbart News propagated a similar half-truth in the early days of social media. Andrew Breitbart in 2010 posted video of Shirley Sherrod, a black official in Obama’s Agriculture Department, who gave a speech suggesting she was reluctant to help a white applicant save his farm. She was fired and blasted as racist — until it turned out Breitbart ran only portions of her speech and not the conclusion, where she said she ultimately did help the man and his farm was saved.
The point of all this? If something sounds so outrageous that it’s simply unbelievable, it may be because it is. If all you’re getting is 140 characters or a screen grab on Facebook, there’s a good chance it’s not the whole story.
Twin Ports journalist Robin Washington comments regularly on KUWS.
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