It’s possible they will re-edit and use other parts of the shoot later in the year. The George Clooney Nespresso ads, for instance, have many different versions. They make a lot more sense but just as with the Nicole ad, those ads are also only about the extremely sexy George Clooney.

Yes, this is true in India too. People will stay out of the sun there because they don’t want to get darker. So even though kola-nut-techie says its due to ethnicities in India, still, regardless what your natural skin tone be, if you hang in the sun, it will get darker. And darker skin is associated with “lower classes” in India, despite the fact that all classes run the gamut of skin tones. And Indian people who do labor long hours in the sun, do in fact, get darker than if they would not to be in the sun.

Or course people who are naturally dark and do not labor in the sun will be dark no matter what, but they will be trained from young childhood NOT to stay in the sun lest they become even darker.

Sometimes dark skinned Indians are said to “look like labor class”. That statement is un-pc on so many levels, but the East is not hung up on pc-ness like the West is, not yet anyway.

Multiple genetic studies (including studies of Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA) have shown that there is no such thing as a “separate Dravidian race.” The only distinct ethnicities in South Asia are the Balochi, Brahui, Burusho, Hazara, Kalash, Pathan and Sindhi peoples.

Your sociology professor must be speaking of more homogeneous societies where skin colour is not a function of ethnicity. I think you have black boxed yourself in a convenient model and have not really tried to understand racial and colour prejudices as they exist on the ground in India. I pray its that and not some ideology induced denial. The difference in Indian skin tones is clearly a result of different ethnicities than a result of a ‘tan’, and the Indian elites are well aware of it in having attuned their prejudices against any darker underclass, and these prejudices get passed on as negative stereotypes. Talking of normative samples and not the sophistry using exceptions – the evidence is overwhelming that upper castes are lighter skinned as compared to the so called lower castes.

Also, please note its not exact to say ‘fair skin’ enjoys an exalted position in Indian consciousness as much as fair skinned with marked Caucasian features. The porcelain skinned North-easterners for example are treated worse than animals by the northern Indians (to the degree of being dehumanized) Racism and colour prejudice tends to decrease from the North to South, Punjab to Tamil Nadu, any observant native will attest to that.

is there no end to hollywood’s liberal bias?