The Celebrity Race

Face Look Familiar?

While researching for my dissertation, I came across this Ad campaign from 2001 by the Commission for Racial Equality. The campaign was trying to tackle issues such as racism and prejudices within society. Using the special effects team who also worked on the film “Gladiator”, well know celebrities were transformed into someone of a different race, whilst asking viewers questions such as, would Ken Livingstone really have been elected Mayor if he was Asian – really homing in on the issue at hand. This campaign also reminded me of a more recent advertising campaign to promote awareness over the issue of domestic violence, where images of well known women in British media were seen to be bruised and hurt, making the audience really take note that it can happen to anyone. Using celebrities to promote or make social causes more aware to the public is really successful concept, allowing the viewer to symapthise with someone who they “know” from the public eye, however advertisers could run the risk of playing it safe by using the same concept, whereby it will be bound to lose its appeal if repeated too many times.