TSA is getting a little bit crazy with Debra Wilson!

Mind you, Debra Wilson is a comedian and actress. She is hilarious, which makes this commercial a little bit funnier than expected. However, I needed to stop for a second and realize what I was laughing at. My initial reaction was that she got a little too close for my comfort and that worried me because it is still just a commercial. Now they could have chosen a white person without a comedic background for the TSA officer's role, but they chose Debra Wilson.

Hershman also says that lighter skin usually means higher social status. So in this particular commercial, the TSA officer, Debra Wilson, has the darker skin and she is not the one with enough money to buy a plane ticket to travel. The woman wearing the Old Navy jeans has enough money to travel and also has light skin. This may have been unintentional on the advertisement agency's part, but it is evident that this is implied.

When discussing race, Bauman established meaning with each one. Essentially it means that the darker the skin the more boisterous and scandalous. The lighter the skin color, the more tame and pure. The woman wearing the jeans has lighter skin but is wearing very tight jeans, which is in my mind, a juxtaposition to Bauman's theory. Clearly she is trying to gain some attention and if you can tell by the freeze-frame at the start of the video, her body is also being itemized by focusing only on her butt and upper thighs.

Debra Wilson also has "poetic license" here because she is a comedian and can get away with more things than an average person. She can make beeping noises that make this woman look more like a mannequin than a person, because it is funny! She can make those faces like she's interested because she is a comedian and this will help sell the jeans.

These jeans also fit this woman very well, which will help sell the jeans because every woman wants to look that good in a pair of jeans. The strategy in this advertisement is classic in a sense because it shows a woman being used simply as a model and not as a human. They are not selling women, so it is fitting that they focus on the jeans, but couldn't they have done it on an average, everyday woman that women could relate to? Yes, they could have, but beautiful women sell and Old Navy wants these jeans to sell.