Pepsi  Ad 

Advertisements that have African Americans as the main focus during and after the Civil Rights Movement. This would fall in the category of American Modernism in which these examples are important and/ or are historical in graphic design history, having a black person(s) front and center in the 20th century is important for representation purposes, especially in times after the Civil Rights Movements. In the past, around from the late 19th century to the 1960s, black people have had a very tainted reputation when it came to advertisements. Showing African Americans as  inferior to white people, made a mockery of with racist caricatures, or shown as inhuman/ animals.The depiction of African Americans in these ads are as normal people, even having them as “main characters” and not props to make a person of lighter complexion look better.

This 1964 poster for Pepsi shows two African Americans enjoying some diet Pepsi while supposedly looking at a photograph. This poster came out during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, having two black people enjoying a very popular drink with smiles on their faces can be seen in two ways…Showing that Pepsi can be enjoyed by everyone of a skin color or ignorant people portraying this as black people tainting the “good name” of Pepsi.