Kobe--What Were You Thinking?

Though this is not entirely media-related, this issue has more than moved me to blog and definitely caused quite a stir in the ad industry. Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, modeling? I don’t know what Barney’s was thinking in hiring a professional, national championship-winning, NBA player to model their new summer line, but they should’ve thought twice. The photos portray Kobe in all white against a blaringly white background. The photos have sparked much criticism around the artistic license of the ads themselves. Kobe, as well as others, has made claims that his skin was darken during the post-shoot editing process. Kobe is more often than not in the public light. Darkening his skin was a horrible choice on the part of the creative team making that ad and would only lead to negative publicity. Though the photos have garnered quite a bit of attention, much of it has not been positive.