“It is time for more diversity and models of all races to be seen.”
This is the first line you see when you land on Deddeh Howard‘s Black Mirror project website. The Advertising industry is a thriving industry that gets in your face almost every moment of the day. We are constantly bombarded with Advertising messages – from the subtle to the not-so-subtle in your face messages, images and posters.
Advertising is a phenomenon that in part controls the Media, which means it has a large influence on Pop Culture, Peer choices and has an overall effect on shaping the minds of people, both young and old.
These thoughts and premises are causes for concerning when diversity is not inculcated into the messages that are in the faces of people. The question then becomes – If an industry that shapes Pop culture and the Media is stripped of diversity, black representation and visibility of all races, aren’t we preaching a false message of diversity?
All of this, led Deddeh Howard to create Black Mirror, a project that brings awareness back to the positive side of black people, positioning big brands to embrace diversity more and give all races visibility.
For this project, she decided to re-shoot several of the inspiring and famous campaigns out there and try to show what they could look like with a black model. Teaming up with Photographer Raffael Dickreuter Deddeh reverse engineered and re-shot these images and got as close as possible to the original.
The full Black Mirror campaign is on Secretofdd.com
All image are gotten from Deddeh Howard’s website.