Actualized Advertising Techniques

The image I chose to use will not allow me to copy it as anything except an archive that redirects you to the website so I am going to attach the url at the bottom of the page and you can click there for the image. I will describe it so you know which one to look for, as well as what I am writing on. The image I found was from the Occupy Wall Street protest in Minneapolis. The photo shows the bottom half of an adult with their arm around a little girl. The little girl has pig-tail braids and is holding up the sign with the adult, assuming the adult to be her parent or guardian, her hand is grasping the left side of the sign while the adult’s is grasping the right. It reads, “We are the 99%”. The sign is covering the little girls mouth as she holds it and gazes at the camera above, hers are the only brown eyes we see. She is also African American. She may have already experienced tastes of this at her young age, but her life will be one of the hardest in the United States as an African American female. The sign covering her mouth alludes to this, as does the hand helping her to hold the sign that is nearly covering her body. I do not believe I am reading too far into this, these are editting techniques of basic photography. When I view this photo as a female I see another photograph with a silent little girl. I recall the analytical work I did as freshman at the U of M on children in advertising and see how this advertising technique has become an actual body practice. There is something at once comforting and disturbing about covering your mouth, it is a sign you will not speak publicly, that you are just there to observe and be observed. The placement of the sign directly in front of her body gives weight to the heavy truth of African American female statistics from education to battering. The fact that the sign covers her body like a blanket emphasizes how much her skin color and gender will cover her entire life. She will be allowed to gaze, mouth covered, eyes open, and body blanketed in stereotypes. She is on the bottom half of the 99% by default, and she will have to choose how she responds to what society and history in a white America has placed upon her. My body's reaction is to picture a strong voice coming from her little body, one that echoes voices of covered, coded mouths across the country. I would like to ask the wise man who posted online if this little girl’s problems would be solved by soap and a job application? For those who only see hippies and lazy people, there are hard working adults, teenagers, seniors, and youth who are put into this 99% because of other people’s actions, not their own.

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