I Don't Shop in Clothing Stores that don't have People of Color in their Advertisements

[Archangel]

I was at the mall yesterday and saw that Aeropostale was having a store closing sale; everything 90% off. I never shopped there before so I wanted to see what they had. Before I walked in the store, I looked up at the wall where all of their pictures were. You know, pics like this:

And I immediately
There were approximately 17 wall advertisements in that store and neither of them had a black person. One had a vague mixed boy but nahh breh.

These clothing companies don't hide their agenda, especially the expensive ones. Marketing and advertising teams know to ALWAYS make sure a person of each racial demographic is represented in advertisements to prevent lawsuits and bad PR. Thats why if you go into one of these huge clothing stores, you'll always see advertisements with a white person here, a Hispanic there, an Asian over here and a black person over there.

But these more expensive brands usually don't care. Now I'm not saying every Aeropostale store is like this because I know each store has a different person handling that particular stores advertisements. But this one was very blatant.

My girl likes to buy Vera Wang clothes. Vera Wang is obviously Asian. The only store here that sells her brand is Kohls and its in this one section. There is one picture of an Asian woman modeling her clothes in that small section. Thats cool to me. One picture is cool. But if I see 20-25 advertisements in a store and my people aren't represented, I don't take that as a coincidence and I bounce. Anybody else notice this.

 

[Archangel]

BUMP

 

[Micron]

I cannot co-sign.

My priority is buying clothes with a classic style that fit well, have quality material, and compliment my skin tone. I am not overly concerned with seeing Black models in images at the actual store. I am more concerned with how I am treated by the staff. Many brands feature Black and non-White models in print ads. Some do not, but those are becoming increasingly rare . I am not going to limit what I wear based on lack of representation. If I see a pea coat that looks like it will do me justice, I'm not going to avoid buying it because I don't see ads of Black people in the store. If the employee is getting froggy, then I don't have a problem walking out and letting them lose the commission. Other than that, I wear what looks good.

I have never seen a person of color in an ad at the Van Heusen store I shop at, but I see them in print ads. It doesn't stop me from shopping there. Besides every blue moon I do see a POC working there.