The Skin Color Experiment

Kids learn things even when they’re not taught them. Television and the expectations of the adults around them shape their outlooks, often with unintended consequences. In Belgium, school network Samen Onderwijs Maken asked kids to take part in an experiment with unsettling results. Directed to pick a colored pencil to use to fill in “skin color” on a drawing of a person, every child picked the light pink shade. Even kids with skin tones much better matched by other pencils in the box picked pink. So SOM and TBWA Belgium created a box of pencils with seven different shades—The Skin Color Collection—to redefine what kids think of as the right color for skin. Direct advertisement created by TBWA, Belgium for Samen Onderwijs Maken, within the category: Education.