When it comes to dentists, I’ve led a pretty charmed life. I still have a couple of fillings put in place by my childhood DDS nearly 60 years ago. For a couple of years in my twenties, my dental care wasn’t up to the standards I was used to, and during this period I had a couple of teeth-related nightmares. And then I met my husband, and started going to his dentist. Dental nightmares begone! This guy is an incredibly good dentist, and I’ve been seeing him for decades now.
But he’s getting on in years – he’s now in his seventies – and our fear was that we’d be lost when he hung his drill up. Then, wonderfully, his son joined the practice. Also an excellent dentist, so I no longer have to worry about looking around in my old age for a new dentist. (Bonus points: his wife is my primary care physician, so top to toe I’m covered until death do us part.)
Bottom line: I’m not looking for a dentist. But if I were, the “three blonde female dentists” who run Renaissance Dental Center in Raleigh, NC, would most decidedly not be my cup of teeth-staining tea.
First off, I’m not wild about professionals – doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants – who advertise. I’ve never seen doctors advertising, nor dentists for that matter. It just might not be a New England kind of thing. But we do have lawyer ads, and I’d go back to law school and become my own lawyer before I’d “better phone Stone” and sign up for Jason Stone’s Stone Cold Guarantee. Or dial for dollars with Tom Kiley, The Million Dollar Man. Maybe I’d think differently if I were in the back of an ambulance that one of them was chasing, but for now…
Second off, the Renaissance ads that they run in a local mag are cheeseball even by the tawdry standards of professionals who advertise.
In the past, the three dentists – all quite attractive – have appeared as construction workers. They’ve posed in workout clothing, and with hearts and teddy bears for a Valentine’s Day-themed ad. (Awwww…)
Truly, based on the ads alone, I wouldn’t let one of these dentists near my gaping mouth with a drill. I don’t care how competent they are, I just couldn’t get past the kitsch.
But their latest ad would really have me questioning their collective judgment.
Given that one of the women is wearing a kimono and has chopsticks in her hair, and another is wearing Indian garb while posing with her arms folded in ugga-bugga-wigwam mode, a lot of people are squawking about cultural appropriation. Me, I’m not all that big on squawking about cultural appropriation. Okay, I don’t like to see drunken young women wearing fake Irish maiden outfits puking in the streets of Boston on St. Patrick’s Day - or other ridiculous and disrespectful borrowings of ethnic look and feel – but why can’t a little boy go out as a Indian brave for Halloween? Why can’t an artist wear a kimono? Or paint a picture of a white woman wearing a kimono? (There was some brouhaha a couple of years back around Monet’s La Japonaise, part of the collection at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.)
All cultures appropriate. That’s how the world evolves. As long as it’s respectful and not exploitative, I think it’s okay to be both a borrower and a lender. (Take my Irish maiden costume, please. Just don’t go puking outside The Black Rose, okay?)
Anyway, if I don’t find the dentist outfits particularly offensive, how about the line below? FREE WHITENING SYSTEM?
Presumably, the dentist in the Scots garb doesn’t need whitening, but an authentic Japanese woman, and an authentic Native American, well, they would be actual people of color. And probably wouldn’t consider themselves in need of a whitening system, even if it were free. Talk about offensive. Talk about whatever the visual equivalent is tone deaf.
Not surprisingly, this ad had plenty of people gnashing their teeth:
“Free whitening system indeed,” one person quipped….
“No excuse to be clueless anymore,” another person added. “This is shameful.”
One commenter opined: “This is like if SNL did a parody on clueless white people.” (Source: Washington Post)
The backlash prompted the dentists to issue an apology:
In one of our recent advertisements, we attempted to focus upon something that unites us…the warmth and joy behind a smile. We now realize it was ignorant and offensive, and we are truly sorry. We have learned a valuable lesson in this situation. Again, our sincere apologies.
The Renaissance Three also pulled their ad, replacing it with one in which they cutesily appear as referees.
And the magazine in which it appeared has “implemented a more stringent policy for checking over ads.”
May be time for the dentists to get a new advertising agency. And how’s this for an idea? Why not pose in – get this – the outfits you wear when you’re being dentists? Makes more sense to me than the Village People approach they’ve been taking. And a lot more culturally and professionally appropriate.
No comments:
Post a Comment