It is not often that a new mobile phone functionality can be truly linked to a cultural moment. This is a big budget, popping advertising category that usually focuses on things like speed, camera quality (you can shoot a Hollywood movie!)
As Google rolls out its latest model, the Pixel 6, a feature the company says sets it apart is called Real Tone, which uses machine learning to photograph a wide range of skin tones more accurately than ever before. It comes on the heels of the recent update of the company’s algorithm to promote more racially diverse results in image searches.
To further promote the new feature, the company has partnered with The New York Times T Brand creative studio at create a campaign called “Picture Progress” around the idea of image equity. “We thought about this from the point of view of, how could our story have been and will it be more representative in the future, if we are able to record it accurately?” Says Vida Cornelious, vice president of creation at NYT Advertising.
Camera technology can ignore and exclude people of color.
We are committed to reversing this bias with #RealTone to # Pixel6. We have worked with expert image makers ???????????????????????? to improve our ???? algorithms to represent people of color beautifully and accurately.# Pixel6Launch pic.twitter.com/W6LLW2LhjY
– Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 19, 2021
Launched today, the campaign consists of two distinct elements. The first is “From Past to Present,” which explores image equity as a way to equalize our visual history. He examines the evolution of color photo technology over the past century, taking three historic photos of The New York Times archives and recreate them with today’s leaders in color using Pixels 6’s Real Tone. The photos will feature three BIPOC activists: Black AIDS Institute founder Phill Wilson; Dolores Huerta, Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist, who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with Cesar Chavez; and civil rights activist Ruby Bridges.
The second part is titled “Present in the Future” and introduces the main BIPOC photographers – Kennedi Carter, Mengwen Cao and Ricardo Nagaoka – using the Pixel 6 to celebrate identity and self-expression with their own voices.
Our commitment to image fairness led to Real Tone on Pixel 6.
With @TbrandStudio, we created “Picture Progress”, an exploration of image fairness through the lens of the Pixel 6.
Look it up in the New York Times. Learn more about https://t.co/SRdCCkXkbb
???? @lNTERNETBBY# Pixel6Launch pic.twitter.com/mW7FouY01e
– Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 19, 2021
Cornelious says it was important to think of the new phone as a tool to capture the images of our lives, our truth as we saw it. “We see the phone not just as a product, but as an empowerment portal right now,” says Cornelious. “This is what it becomes. Real Tone feature lets your phone become the truth in your hands. What we capture in our images is the most representative moment of ourselves. This is not just for making phone calls, but an extension of who we are and how we can be seen.
