We can't act like ambiguity is somehow neutral or harmless here, especially when the aesthetics lean so heavily into this idealized whiteness, and then ends on a phrase talking about "good genes." It stops being just clever wordplay. And it starts echoing long-standing narratives about genetic superiority. In that context, it's not hard to see how this lands as more than just a cheeky pun.
As far as Hunter Schafer -- context matters. Who's delivering the message? What do they represent? All of that matters in shaping how it is received. You can't just swap one white person in for another and pretend the message carries the same cultural weight or implications. It doesn't.
Even before people started pointing this all out, there were already folks online using the ad as a symbolic "win" against so-called "wokeness" and rallying around her like some kind of savior. That's only become more obvious with the wider right-wing embrace of the ad, not because the message was misunderstood, but because it was understood perfectly by the target audience.
Maybe in another time this kind of ad wouldn't feel like a big deal. But right now, when so many parts of society are capitulating to Trump and his "fight anti-white racism" crusade, I can't just shrug this off. I'm not going to pretend there's no subtext here or that it's all just clever marketing. We're living in a moment where racial signaling -- even when it's subtle -- carries real weight. So yeah, I'm staying skeptical.