New Series: Natural Hair in TV Commercial

In recent years, I have noticed an increasing number of Black women with natural hair in North American TV commercial. It almost seems as if every Black woman and child used in a commercial has to have natural hair, even if its an afro kinky wig. Although the hair on these ladies are undeniably real!

So this brings me to ask the question "Why do Black women in movies and TV shows wear straight hair when the other races already know what our true hair is and are even demanding for it?"
Although I understand that the heavy manipulation and touch ups in those TV series are very damaging to our hair, and so one needs to protect it by covering it with a wig. The unfortunate aspect of this is that Black actresses will continue to wear wigs until we see an increase in the number of educated natural hairstylists, particularly celebrity stylists.

For this first series, I bring you a Hershey chocolate bar commercial which was aired in the states. I will try to feature more Canadian commercials, I just have to dig deep for them.

This commercial features a natural mother and daughter. What do you think of the mom's fiery fro and the girl's bouncing twists?

I applaud the "commercial" industry for sourcing women with hair like mine to play an important role on TV, even if it's just for a few seconds or few minutes. This is a big deal to me because this means I don't have to worry about my hair being the center of attraction in public places and I won't have to explain why my hair can be "big like that". We often talk about Natural hair being a foreign hair texture to non Blacks (though it's also foreign to many Black women) and we are quick to excuse non Blacks for their ignorance and aversion towards our hair. Well, let me be the first to tell you that our hair is now very common and it's up in everyone's faces, it's in their living room TV, computer, iPad, cell phones and other electronic devices! Even if a white person has never seen a Black woman with an afro-textured hair, at least they've seen a few on TV, and so they can't tell me that they feel threatened by my hair and are uncomfortable by it.

What other TV commercials have you spot afro hair in? Please share with us in the comment box and I'll include them in future series.