The following post was written by a male boomer advertising professional and may therefore only interest male boomer advertising professionals.

In the past year, I've read a few books and seen a few movies in which not one person looks like me. I won't bore you with all of them, but here's a range of what I'm talking about.

I read the sequel to The Woman Who Walked Through Doors by Roddy Doyle. In Paula Spencer, we check in to see how Paula, the once battered house cleaner in Dublin, a widow and alcoholic, is getting on 9 years later. And you know what? She looks nothing like me. She didn't in the original and now, at 48, the dissemblance has not decreased. She is an amazing woman, with an inspiring tenacity and sense of humor, but she doesn't even look like my sister.

Last week I read P.D. James's book, Cover Her Face, the first of the Adam Dalgliesh murder mysteries. And Adam doesn't look like me either. Actually, the way I see Adam, I wish that I resembled him––he's so suave and cool, so much more together than me. 

A couple of months ago, I finally read One Hundred Years of Solitude. Nope––I don't think I look anything like its Juans and Aurelianos. They all have mustaches.

As far as the other books go, they were more of the same–-no one looked like me.

And what about the silver screen? Could I be seen anywhere on that? No, I did not appear there either. I look nothing like the stoners in Pineapple Express, nothing like Batman or the Joker, or the one-eyed blinker in Diving Bell.

Oh it's okay, really. It may come as a surprise to some people that it doesn't bother me, but it really doesn't. I didn't even seem to miss me. The fact is, it's not important. It's about the stories. And in one capacity or another, each of those works moved me. I like being taken away from me.

Now this observation came about as the issue of diversity resurfaced in the trades last week, prompted by the study, "Perspectives on Race and Employment in the Advertising Industry" (Adweek, 1/09/09). Let me say outright that I am not disputing any of it. My commentary is more about a slight omission. I have seen no mention of those client mandates about the target audience being in the commercials and photo shoots, or that scenes reflect perfect percentages––you know, so that every gathering looks like the UN, everyone all toothy, happy and plastic. (I once did a spot for a diner-style chain that started out with one couple and ended up with 3–-one white, one African American and one Asian couple. The setting was Utopian, though the spot turned out cheesy.) It happens all the time. Yes, yes I sympathize with the pressures that HR directors confront and understand that it's all for a good cause––I get that. But given that this effects the work and therefore, potentially, lots of consumers, I am compelled to point out that whether I appear in ads for products I might consider is, also, not important. Should we see more diversity? Absolutely, but we should realize that seeing one's likeness is not the magic key to feeling welcomed to Walmart, and we should stick to what we know about communication that communicates. So, if a story doesn't provide the proper visual, we should probably recommend a different story.

Seriously, was the target for Bugs Bunny silly slavering rabbits that own a television?

I have an inkling that if we focus on touching  people's hearts, speak to people as if they are more than their skin color or gender, diversity––at least in the advertising––would be a non-issue. Either that, or consider reverting to ads with only copy, like this post. Assuming that research indicates that your consumer reads such things.