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Are TV commercials picking on the white guy? Part Three: Revenge of the Sith
emnmnme
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Now that white births in America have dipped below 50%, it's time for another annual update on what's going on with TV commercials in America. TV commercials are very good at what they're designed to do: convince the consumer to trust their message by reinforcing and parroting back John Q. Public's notions, opinions, and prejudices to sell a product. And these things aren't free – TV commercials are carefully researched to be as appealing as possible by reflecting certain social values back at viewers and, today, I want to discuss what's going on with race and TV commercials. One long-running trend I've noticed is that when a commercial calls for a fool or a butt of a joke and the cast of the commercial is interracial, a white guy will usually be that fool. That's understandable. The practice makes sense since ad makers, above all, want to avoid accusations of racism and the bad press that follows so they play it safe and cast white actors to be fools/thieves/buffoons/awkward nerds/etc.
I'm mildly concerned that American TV watchers don't notice this trend is even happening. Since TV commercials still make up a large part of our daily media consumption, it's troubling to see our tolerance for misfortune and lunacy is lop-sided in one direction. There's already a well-known television trope between the chubby, balding, dim-witted husband and his slender, clever wife but I'd rather focus on race in this thread and discuss whether or not race is a thing in the commercials we watch. Forgive my lack of sociological terminology and gobblediguk but my opinion about this tendency to make whites into fools is racism but it's not racism racism. It's not meant to be hurtful or defame whites for a cruel laugh but it is a constant reinforcement of a bad image and that might evolve into a negative stereotype. I do not believe a bad image on TV will lead to whites in America being oppressed or anything nonsensical like that … but it stings.
Like in the last two threads, here's some data: a collection of TV commercials that use an interracial cast of actors that I happened to watch on TV and remember. They're from the past six months or so, this being June, and if you'd like to add recent examples that I've missed or haven't seen, feel free.
White fools
A man can't control his urge to eat corn chips.
A scary commercial about high bills.
A couple struggles with filing their taxes.
A woman with poor eyesight pulls a gag from a Mr. Magoo cartoon.
Two neighbors discuss their plans for retirement.
The 4Genie upgrades old phones like magic!
A car salesman lays it on thick. Really thick. Comically so.
The new guy doesn't quite fit in.
The new guy still doesn't fit in.
No, there's something really wrong with this guy.
This babysitter doesn't offer fair rates.
A crotchety 12 year old tells two 8 year olds about how hard things were back in the old days.
A driver can't control his enthusiasm for a spicy chicken sandwich.
The world's dirtiest Snuggie.
An identity thief cleans out a customer's bank account.
Not really fools but it would seem two of these three couples are not adequately preparing for the future.
I hope he didn't bite into a spoiled meatball.
At least the warranty is good.
Go, Big Money!
Would you accept a mortgage agreement from clowns?
A teen driver wrecks his Dad's car.
A guy complains about his high cell phone bill.
Kissing your boss' ass is a time-honored tradition.
White fools and non-white fools together
A couple risks life and limb to ditch a pair of stuffed shirts on their way to a yuppie restaurant.
Kids these days are too enthusiastic about their slurping.
Every good romance drama needs a happy ending.
Two grown men give a kid a headache.
A series of unfortunate events plagues the neighborhood.
I don't know what's going on here.
Non-white fools
The greatest series of commercials ever made.
Aziz Ansari has found a new hobby.
Questionable placement for an expensive billboard, wouldn't you say?
A customer develops a tell and can't maintain his poker face.
I'm mildly concerned that American TV watchers don't notice this trend is even happening. Since TV commercials still make up a large part of our daily media consumption, it's troubling to see our tolerance for misfortune and lunacy is lop-sided in one direction. There's already a well-known television trope between the chubby, balding, dim-witted husband and his slender, clever wife but I'd rather focus on race in this thread and discuss whether or not race is a thing in the commercials we watch. Forgive my lack of sociological terminology and gobblediguk but my opinion about this tendency to make whites into fools is racism but it's not racism racism. It's not meant to be hurtful or defame whites for a cruel laugh but it is a constant reinforcement of a bad image and that might evolve into a negative stereotype. I do not believe a bad image on TV will lead to whites in America being oppressed or anything nonsensical like that … but it stings.
Like in the last two threads, here's some data: a collection of TV commercials that use an interracial cast of actors that I happened to watch on TV and remember. They're from the past six months or so, this being June, and if you'd like to add recent examples that I've missed or haven't seen, feel free.
White fools
A man can't control his urge to eat corn chips.
A scary commercial about high bills.
A couple struggles with filing their taxes.
A woman with poor eyesight pulls a gag from a Mr. Magoo cartoon.
Two neighbors discuss their plans for retirement.
The 4Genie upgrades old phones like magic!
A car salesman lays it on thick. Really thick. Comically so.
The new guy doesn't quite fit in.
The new guy still doesn't fit in.
No, there's something really wrong with this guy.
This babysitter doesn't offer fair rates.
A crotchety 12 year old tells two 8 year olds about how hard things were back in the old days.
A driver can't control his enthusiasm for a spicy chicken sandwich.
The world's dirtiest Snuggie.
An identity thief cleans out a customer's bank account.
Not really fools but it would seem two of these three couples are not adequately preparing for the future.
I hope he didn't bite into a spoiled meatball.
At least the warranty is good.
Go, Big Money!
Would you accept a mortgage agreement from clowns?
A teen driver wrecks his Dad's car.
A guy complains about his high cell phone bill.
Kissing your boss' ass is a time-honored tradition.
White fools and non-white fools together
A couple risks life and limb to ditch a pair of stuffed shirts on their way to a yuppie restaurant.
Kids these days are too enthusiastic about their slurping.
Every good romance drama needs a happy ending.
Two grown men give a kid a headache.
A series of unfortunate events plagues the neighborhood.
I don't know what's going on here.
Non-white fools
The greatest series of commercials ever made.
Aziz Ansari has found a new hobby.
Questionable placement for an expensive billboard, wouldn't you say?
A customer develops a tell and can't maintain his poker face.
emnmnme on
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so why does it sting, then
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
It is a constant reinforcement of a bad image?
And I would definitely argue that "surreal/weird/foolish" is a current marketing trend, and white men are just the most often used protagonists because white men are considered the default.
It does not sting.
If anything, I'm not privileged enough. I feel I should more good things that are only for me and people like me. For starters, I never want to pay taxes, ever. Secondly, I want all cops everywhere to respect and/or love me. Third, I don't want my ability to vote to ever be impugned.
That's Phase 1.
maybe for a person who spends all their time watching advertising? But even then I doubt it. Television remains an overwhelmingly white-normative environment, which is why (in a recent example) it's all but impossible for people of color to get on the Bachelor. There are thousands of other examples.
But okay, the problem here is apparently that advertising tends to portray people of color as being smarter/cooler/more graceful than the general (white) population. Explain again why I'm supposed to be angry about this?
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I swear I've seen at least one in a commercial, but I can't put a name to it.
Though come to think about it, there's been quite a few recently on some of BBC3's newer things (Being Human and The Fades), so there's a little progress perhaps.
But the actual commercials using whitefolks as buffoons, idiots, or people of low moral character doesn't bother me any.
Or the more likely case that the protagonist in each case is white because that is what our society considers a default protagonist, and we're just getting more silly commercials because DVRs mean you need to trick people into watching with a bit of comedy.
Edit: I should point out - it bugs me from time to time that there aren't a lot of competent father figures in media but not enough to actually feel aggrieved about it. I'd just rather there were more positive role models for my boys.
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Always.
Indeed.
I think the issue here is that the media has run out of soft targets because just about anyone doing something negative in a film, TV show, or commercial will have a defense group who seeks to assert the notion those attributes extrapolated onto their entire culture, whether that's actually true or not.
It goes the opposite way, too, but with a bit less fuss. Positive racism is still racism, but people are slower to act on it because, hey, people like nice things being said about them. Jokes about Asians being good at math, Blacks being good at sports, and Whites being wealthy rarely get the "Racist!" tag, despite being totally racist.
So, since Whites and men have the least amount of negative invective hurled their way by the macro-culture and the media, they become the go-to soft target: fat, dumb, incompetent, uncool targets.
Is it wrong? Probably. But if I get upset about White dudes getting the short end of the cultural joke-stick, A) fuck me, because White dudes are doing pretty okay last I looked, and
Yeah I'm not really bothered by stupid commercials like this; the idea that men are poor at hygiene or cooking or cleaning comes from the idea that those are women's jobs, because women should do the domestic work and men should go out and work a job and come home to dinner on the table, etc. Silliness like that is still following the typical structure of misogynistic sexism, sadly.
The argument could be made that negative stereotypes about men are being reinforced by these ads, but negative stereotypes of men in our culture, transmitted in this way, don't tend to stick very well or have much real impact on the lives of men. I suppose, if I really try, I can find a "durrr I can't get this mop to work" commercial insulting, but I certainly don't find it oppressive.
I think it's really the context, though - if we lived in a culture where white men were notably oppressed, and had concrete disadvantages, there might be something to get angry about. But in our context, where being a white man is a fairly large advantage in many ways, it's more the case that stupid advertisers who can't manage to grind out an ad without insulting someone have decided to insult the safest demographic, i.e. the un-oppressed majority.
What I think is more dangerous is something like what Spool mentioned - male role models creating ideas of masculinity. But I'd be more concerned about bad role models being treated positively and creating a poisonous idea of masculinity than I would about a bad commercial affecting male self esteem or something.
I'm ok with it.
But if they were playing on masculinity, the dopey, pudgey, allerigic to the sun bastard would have busted out his rambo knife and stabbed the bag of cereal. The knife is the go to man tool. Everybody knows that! Rambo fucking proved it!!!
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What gives you that impression?
*sigh* You can't be racist against white people. Racism is prejudice + power, and white people are at the top of the heap when it comes to power.
http://www.racialequitytools.org/ci-concepts-ra.htm
http://www.antiracistworkshop.org/define/def.html
Well, that certainly is an opinion.
O_o
So... you want to be a rich person then?
This stereotyping is new and shiny.
You were making a joke just so you could post those links, right? My joke detected might be borked.
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Is it bad that my first thought was, "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED"?
That's a pretty common use of the word 'racism.'
It's worth keeping in mind that racial prejudice by white people against POC (especially black people) is of a completely different caliber than racial prejudice by POC against white people.
It's also worth keeping in mind the difference between talking about racism as a personal attitude versus racism as a social problem.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
sorry guys ill try to be less useless in future
I'd agree here.
The buffoonish man thing has always annoyed me.
Yeah yeah don't accidentally eat any healthy hot pockets on your way to fixing the sink, buffoon husband!
I do want to point out that part of the reason that man turns out to be white most of the time is because 'white' is the default. Part of being the (cultural) majority means that you get to have a greater diversity of roles portrayed in media and fiction.
Traditionally, if a given Hollywood producer wants to add a secondary character to a movie or TV show, or a random dude in a commercial, unless the dude has a good reason to be non-white, that dude will end up white.
This is, thankfully, becoming less true with each passing decade. But it is still true to a certain degree.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Sorry. I was busy trying to steal credit from my wife by acting as if I brought home our wonderfully nutrionally shitty dinner. She trumped me though; I forgot she still had those damned apple pies.
While I'm sure there are varying degrees of racism, and causes, and reasons people implement it, the idea that you can't be racist against white folk is still (at minimum) a joke.
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Naw, man. White people suck and they are vile and horrible and only they can be racist. The flawless and perfect minorities (who, by the way, are not human beings but rather angels) could never hate someone for any reason whatsoever for they are pure of soul and beautiful of mind.
That's not what that idea means.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
but clicking 6 random examples of this horrific prejudice you've posted... I do not see a single "white male buffon".
There are several where a white man makes a funny joke, but that's actually generally considered good.
The scary thing is that some people honestly think like that.