alienequivalent

You know, I'm African American and while I hate seeing ads like these, I'm not going to say that I object to them being made...it seems that for a very long time sexual tension was the way to get people to buy things and advertising gurus are just getting to a point where they feel they can tap into different kinds of anxiety in order to get attention. In the US, I find that most minorities do not talk about race with white people (I do know that they talk about it amongst themselves) and if such a mass medium can push the issue into the limelight and give people of different races something to talk about with one another, all the better.
Whenever the subject of race comes up, the horrible legacy of slavery just shuts everyone up; no one wants to offend anyone, thus racial tension sustains itself in whatever environment where the thing came up (a party, a bar, a meeting where people are brainstorming and need to be open to discuss anything).
I think there's a big difference between institutional racism and images that use racial tension. However, the two things can (and will) dictate the nuances in either. Don't people think it's better to see racial tension being portrayed rather than being erased or ignored?