engine gunk!

If you pump gas at the Shell Station on El Camino and Oxford Street in Palo Alto, this woman smiles down upon you while you slake your thirsty car:

Things of note:

The ad is cheap. Probably literally cheap to make: a model, her clothes and makeup, a photographer, two engine valves, a copywriter, and a designer. Also, cheap-looking: crappy design (note the bright red arrow pointing to "Engine gunk!", and the excitable "Engine valves after only 5,000 miles!" badly squeezed between the two valves), questionable color palette (pink, red, yellow, light blue, like the baby department of a paint store). And is that New Century Gothic?!

Design principles. Two vertical lines frame the person. Her gaze draws yours toward the valve on the right. So does the color and light balance. Left is sinister, right is right. Left to right motion is progress, so valve on the right is evolutionary improvement of valve on the left. Little Shell logo on the coat tells you which is the Shell valve.

They think I'm simple. A helix of blue beads juxtaposed with a greasy valve is supposed to convince me to patronize Shell.

The image that is supposed to convince me is that of a scientist. Somebody in a white lab coat. That person is a woman.  Woman is older. She is Caucasian. They could have Photoshopped the lines in her neck out, but chose not to. She does not wear a wedding band or engagement ring, which is probably true to life given the partnership and family prospects of women who pursue terminal degrees. She is thin-lipped and shapeless but not entirely without suggestive flavor - her pink shirt opens with a vulvar collar and a light application of makeup says that she has only given up on sex 90-95%.

Why not an older, white, male model? An Asian model? I'm not saying that because I'm concerned about API visibility and empowerment here but because I expect ad writers to cash in on the model minority stereotype. Is the choice of an older white woman supposed to signify Shell's social consciousness - that it is aware of and fighting the bias against women in the sciences? Because the demographic filling up their tanks at Shell gas stations skews toward older white women, who are more likely to trust reflections of their own faces? Because sex and dependability are at odds? I suppose you don't really see nubile young things pitching fire insurance.

Just things to think about in the 90 seconds one patiently endures in order to rejoin the road trip toward environmental destruction, suburban sprawl, unsustainable development, resource dependency, geopolitical gamesmanship, war and death.