Search

This article considers critical responses to disability in 20th-century Anglo-American advertisements from which a problematic advertising aesthetic emerges. The aesthetic is used to test the progressiveness of a recent trilogy of Dove advertisements that represents visual impairment. The conclusion is that while there has been much progress, the ableist advertising aesthetic of decades ago remains an issue in the 21st century. More specifically, the Dove advertisements are found to be underpinned by ocularcentrism, despite their apparent appreciation of visual impairment.

Various denotations and connotations of the word ‘blindness’ are examined and the inference is drawn that they constitute a psychosocial burden that perpetuates prejudice. The analysis leads on to a hypothesis in which a more progressive terminology could lead to reduction of this burden.