Lola Ogunyemi, the model in Dove's 'racist' ad, speaks out

On Saturday, Dove apologized for a body wash advertisement that many on social media perceived as racist. Now, the model featured in the ad has weighed in with a more complicated perspective on the story.

In an op-ed in The Guardian, model Lola Ogunyemi expressed her dismay that she'd become "the unwitting poster child for racist advertising."

In the ad, Ogunyemi removes a brown shirt, which reveals a white woman in a cream shirt underneath. Some understood the narrative of the ad as a sort of before and after, implying that Ogunyemi is the dirty "before," and the white woman the clean "after." This is a troubling and not unfounded comparison, given the history of racist advertisements that some on Twitter compared it to.

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But the "overarching objective" of the ad was to "use our differences to highlight the fact that all skin deserves gentleness," wrote Ogunyemi; she viewed the concept as a positive portrayal of diversity. "If I had even the slightest inclination that I would be portrayed as inferior," she wrote, "or as the ‘before’ in a before and after shot, I would have been the first to say an emphatic ‘no.’"

Ogunyemi explained that the "snapshots," first shared by Facebook user @Naythemua, were misleading separated from the context of the video ads. "I think the full TV edit does a much better job of making the campaign’s message loud and clear," she wrote.

"I can see how the snapshots that are circulating the web have been misinterpreted, considering the fact that Dove has faced a backlash in the past for the exact same issue," she wrote. "I can also see that a lot has been left out. The narrative has been written without giving consumers context on which to base an informed opinion."

Recounting her time on set and her excitement to participate in the advertising campaign, Ogunyemi wrote that she had a positive experience, but also that in the wake of the criticism, the company could have done more to defend their vision, and their models.

While I agree with Dove’s response to unequivocally apologise for any offense caused, they could have also defended their creative vision, and their choice to include me, an unequivocally dark-skinned black woman, as a face of their campaign. I am not just some silent victim of a mistaken beauty campaign. I am strong, I am beautiful, and I will not be erased.

A picture may be worth a thousand words. But the internet might also want to consult the people in the picture before assuming what they're saying.