Live data from Hacker News

$200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

news.bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 58 posts

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#2
I would not be willing to spend years getting inside the heads of customers whose mindset I oppose. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#3
There is nothing more wrong about this product than tanning creams. The users of this product aren't aspiring to be white people (which seems to be implied). It's used for aesthetic reasons.

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#4
If you can be a pornstar and make some money, would you still execute?

If you can be a doctor that does abortion, would you still execute? (Conversely, if you're a doctor that doesn't do abortions, would you still execute?)

If you can own a tanning salon and make some money, would you still execute?

If you can make songs about selling drugs, pimping ho's, robbing people and make money, would you still execute?

Everyone has their morality line drawn somewhere.

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#6
post #2

I would not be willing to spend years getting inside the heads of customers whose mindset I oppose. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?

I find it interesting that you're okay with opposing someone but not understanding why they think the way they do. Isn't that a bad sign?

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#7
post #3

There is nothing more wrong about this product than tanning creams. The users of this product aren't aspiring to be white people (which seems to be implied). It's used for aesthetic reasons.

I think there is a basic difference between a skin lightener and a tanning product. A more apt analogy would be 'hair relaxers' that were popular in the 1960's and 70's, these products helped African Americans straighten their hair. There is a pretty rich dialog about these products that I think would be worth reading to get a better appreciation of the context and controversy here.

I personally would not want to market a product that advanced an image of beauty in a culture with documented history of racism and classicism against people with dark skin. But that's just me.

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#8
This market is not really new... It seems a lot of E/SE Asians got cosmetic eye lid surgery to look more Western

http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020805/story2.html

To understand it better all you have to do is walk around in a big Japanese city and look at the print ads (or hell just watch some of the commercials)... it still perplexes me to this day

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#9
post #7
post #3

There is nothing more wrong about this product than tanning creams. The users of this product aren't aspiring to be white people (which seems to be implied). It's used for aesthetic reasons.

I think there is a basic difference between a skin lightener and a tanning product. A more apt analogy would be 'hair relaxers' that were popular in the 1960's and 70's, these products helped African Americans straighten their hair. There is a pretty rich dialog about these products that I think would be worth reading to get a better appreciation of the context and controversy here. I personally would not want to mar…

It seems to me that as long as ethnicity correlates with appearance, and beauty means a certain kind of appearance, then some ethnicities will be more 'beautiful'. Italian muralists painted pale fat women even though such women were probably more common in Germany -- it was a standard of beauty that happened to favor one ethnic group over the group that promulgated it. Similarly, I don't think the people who decided that tan=attractive were part of some vast Latino/Latina Attractiveness Conspiracy.

Re: $200M market for a product catering to prejudice. If you had a similar product idea or implementation that could make you rich; would you still execute?

#10
Yeah, like deodorant, diamonds, Armani, the Model T, cruise ships, tanning salons, makeup, corsets, diet pills, jumbo mortgages, health spas, and The Great Vowel Shift of the 1600s.

Nearly everything is marketed by making you seem like a person of higher social status. If people were comfortable with who they were, we wouldn't need 90% of the goods on the market (and the remaining 10% would likely be much cheaper). It's not human nature to be content with your lot in life; if we made everyone equal, they'd find some new dimension to elevate. Bring on the Star-Bellied Sneetches!

Post reply on HN