Today such covers are a rarity. "Uniformity just isn't appealing anymore," she said.
Such a transition is in line with the currently fashionable argument that race itself is a fiction. This theory has been advanced by prominent scholars like K. Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy at Princeton, and Evelyn Hammond, a professor of the history of science and Afro-American studies at Harvard. In a PBS broadcast last spring, Hammond said race is a human contrivance, a "concept we invented to categorize the perceived biological, social and cultural differences between human groups."
More and more, that kind of thinking is echoed by the professional image makers.
"Some of us are just now beginning to recognize that many cultures and races are assimilating," said John Partilla, the chief executive of Brand Buzz, a marketing agency owned by the WPP group. "If what you're seeing now is our focus on trying to reflect the blending of individuals, it reflects a societal trend, not a marketing trend."
"For once," Partilla added, "it's about art imitating life."
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