Images of Ethnic Minorities

Description

Above is a picture of five students smiling because they attend Universitat Leipzig. As you can see in the picture there are two people that are of a darker color. A very slight darker color I must add. These students, I am assuming, are supposed to represent the ethnic minorities in Berlin. What a shame!

Analysis

Complete and total shock is what I have come to feel about images of ethnic groups in Berlin. Since I received this assignment, I have been looking for advertisements that show a diverse group of cultures, colors, people, etc. I have been here for a week and a half and this is the only advertisement I have found. This comes to a complete shock to me as I figured there would be so many more. I always thought diversity came easily to people in Europe, but I have found that here in Berlin that is not the case.
No, I don’t believe that everyone in Berlin/Germany looks the same but I did believe there were your typical looking Germans. Blonde, blue eyes, sharp features, but I have come to realize that is not the case. Currently, our hostel is in a Turkish neighborhood which is where this ad was found. Does the Universitat Leipzig not want Turkish people in their schools or are the darker skinned people in the advertisement supposed to represent the Turkish population. One would figure that a university would want a diverse range of students, but this advertisement does not represent that ideal. What shocks me even more is that this is the first advertisement I find in Berlin with people who do not look like your cookie cutter image of a German I initially believed existed.
At FIU, a lot of time is spent in classes discussing how people want to be able to relate to advertisements. They want to see themselves in the ads in order to feel close to the product. Well, I truly do not believe the advertisements in Berlin are doing a good job of this concept. Ok, perhaps there really isn’t that much diversity in Germany as a whole, however, I know for a fact the Russian and Turkish cultures are visible in the Berlin market and I do not believe most of the adverts in Berlin are targeting them. There is no racial identity used in the ads. Even in the advertisement above most of the cultures in Germany could not see themselves in this advert.
Yes, one can argue that culture is shared values, traditions, norms, and customs; however, if you don’t have a diverse advertisement then I don’t believe people will relate to them. This ad has done the best job from what I have seen in Germany and yet it lacks real diversity. True ethnic groups are not portrayed. In this advertisement the creators had a chance to show true diversity and I believe they failed.