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Are TV commercials picking on White guys?
emnmnme
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
In America, White privilege is subtle but it isn't dead yet. The bulk of our political representatives are White and Whites are less likely to worry about redlining, awkward job interviews, and condescension in the workplace. And if you are a Caucasian male between ages 18-35 like I am, times should be even sweeter since, as a consumer, you're in a prime demographic. Knowing all that, it makes some sense that White Americans can take light-hearted jabs and parody a little better - no point in sweating the small stuff, right? White men have no good reason to complain so just take it on the chin and move on.
What's interesting, then, is how TV advertising has reacted to this in the last two decades or so. When a commercial's script requires a social setting, there's a chance that the studio will use an interracial cast to appeal to a broad audience. I don't have any numbers but just personally I've noticed that TV ads that use a social setting are more often than not comedies with little visual punchlines at the end. That's not set in stone or anything - a group of friends doesn't always have to follow a comedy routine. What is set in stone, though, is if that script for a TV advert calls for an idiot, a thief, a slacker, an agitator, a weenie, or a blowhard, and the cast is interracial, it's the White guy that's going to be the butt of the joke. It's nothing mean-spirited or sinister but it's pretty damn transparent advertisers don't want to hint that minorities fall in with stereotypes for the sake of comedy. They're taking the safest route possible to offend the least amount of potential consumers and that's perfectly understandable. I can't find any fault with that in the long run but people should be mindful that the trend is happening if they aren't already.
There was a McDonald's commercial a few months ago here in the States where two twenty-something roommates were having the new Southern Style chicken sandwiches for lunch. The Black roommate comes in wearing a dress shirt and tie and sits down at the table to eat. The White roommate is an unshaven, unemployed slacker who just woke up and stumbles in. The punchline ends up being the White roommie doesn't know about the Southern Style chicken biscuits for breakfast because he sleeps in all morning. I got to wonderin' if there would be any uproar if the actors' roles were reversed: the White twenty-something wore the necktie and the Black guy was lazy. Nah, there probably wouldn't be an uproar but the Black community would be mildly offended. Either way, their chicken biscuit is damn good.
Americans already sorta know that kind of commercial isn't a one-time quirk. There are lots of examples where the White guy is playing an incompetent, a selfish Scrooge, or the awkward weirdo when standing next to actors of other races. If misfortune is going to strike, it's going to hit the White male rather than the Asian/Black/Latino/woman because it's easier to laugh.
A Cingular cell phone commercial where the guy behind the counter thinks raw meat is good enough.
A McDonald's commercial where spazz bothers a cute girl.
A Washington Mutual banking commercial with lawyers and bankers in a holding pen. This has been a long-running theme for years for WaMu commercials.
A Holiday Inn commercial where a long-term guest has his head in the clouds.
An Adidas commercial where a thief steals from a charity.
A Bud Light thief-turned-bottle opener.
A Jackson Hewitt tax commercial where the stress of filing taxes comes to a head.
That's just a list. It doesn't mean anything by itself since these kinds of commercials are a tiny, tiny fraction of all televised advertisements. But you'll have a much, much harder time trying to assemble a list where the non-White actor is the butt of a joke and the White guy gets a positive role. These two are the closest I found but if you know others, please post them.
Insane driver scares the shit out of a smoker.
7-Up spokesperson tinkers the soda machines and wreaks havoc on a beach.
So what does this all mean? Not much, I'd guess; I stated before that these commercials are an insignificant fraction of all commercials and it's not like advertisers are looking to champion equal rights. Advertisers obviously want to sell their product and offend the least number of people while doing that. There's no reverse racism or hazing or new negative stereotypes here but the question is should consumers and advertisers be more conscious of this? Is this going to lead to anything worse in the next ten years? And why is it this standard is flipped in videogames and I can't think of more than five positive Black protagonists that aren't sidekicks or comic relief?
Weird Al's ballad to White nerds
What's interesting, then, is how TV advertising has reacted to this in the last two decades or so. When a commercial's script requires a social setting, there's a chance that the studio will use an interracial cast to appeal to a broad audience. I don't have any numbers but just personally I've noticed that TV ads that use a social setting are more often than not comedies with little visual punchlines at the end. That's not set in stone or anything - a group of friends doesn't always have to follow a comedy routine. What is set in stone, though, is if that script for a TV advert calls for an idiot, a thief, a slacker, an agitator, a weenie, or a blowhard, and the cast is interracial, it's the White guy that's going to be the butt of the joke. It's nothing mean-spirited or sinister but it's pretty damn transparent advertisers don't want to hint that minorities fall in with stereotypes for the sake of comedy. They're taking the safest route possible to offend the least amount of potential consumers and that's perfectly understandable. I can't find any fault with that in the long run but people should be mindful that the trend is happening if they aren't already.
There was a McDonald's commercial a few months ago here in the States where two twenty-something roommates were having the new Southern Style chicken sandwiches for lunch. The Black roommate comes in wearing a dress shirt and tie and sits down at the table to eat. The White roommate is an unshaven, unemployed slacker who just woke up and stumbles in. The punchline ends up being the White roommie doesn't know about the Southern Style chicken biscuits for breakfast because he sleeps in all morning. I got to wonderin' if there would be any uproar if the actors' roles were reversed: the White twenty-something wore the necktie and the Black guy was lazy. Nah, there probably wouldn't be an uproar but the Black community would be mildly offended. Either way, their chicken biscuit is damn good.
Americans already sorta know that kind of commercial isn't a one-time quirk. There are lots of examples where the White guy is playing an incompetent, a selfish Scrooge, or the awkward weirdo when standing next to actors of other races. If misfortune is going to strike, it's going to hit the White male rather than the Asian/Black/Latino/woman because it's easier to laugh.
A Cingular cell phone commercial where the guy behind the counter thinks raw meat is good enough.
A McDonald's commercial where spazz bothers a cute girl.
A Washington Mutual banking commercial with lawyers and bankers in a holding pen. This has been a long-running theme for years for WaMu commercials.
A Holiday Inn commercial where a long-term guest has his head in the clouds.
An Adidas commercial where a thief steals from a charity.
A Bud Light thief-turned-bottle opener.
A Jackson Hewitt tax commercial where the stress of filing taxes comes to a head.
That's just a list. It doesn't mean anything by itself since these kinds of commercials are a tiny, tiny fraction of all televised advertisements. But you'll have a much, much harder time trying to assemble a list where the non-White actor is the butt of a joke and the White guy gets a positive role. These two are the closest I found but if you know others, please post them.
Insane driver scares the shit out of a smoker.
7-Up spokesperson tinkers the soda machines and wreaks havoc on a beach.
So what does this all mean? Not much, I'd guess; I stated before that these commercials are an insignificant fraction of all commercials and it's not like advertisers are looking to champion equal rights. Advertisers obviously want to sell their product and offend the least number of people while doing that. There's no reverse racism or hazing or new negative stereotypes here but the question is should consumers and advertisers be more conscious of this? Is this going to lead to anything worse in the next ten years? And why is it this standard is flipped in videogames and I can't think of more than five positive Black protagonists that aren't sidekicks or comic relief?
Weird Al's ballad to White nerds
emnmnme on
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Posts
Yup.
You've got to be fucking kidding me.
What do you mean? Checking the "Woohooo, I'm white." box on the tax forms automatically reduces 5% in all income brackets.
I think that's what he's talking about. His dismissing the "subtle" assertion, not the "dead" assertion.
Yep.
People won't assume they are imlpying all whites are lazy or whatever. The white community can, for them most part take a joke. It is prejudice, but also one based pretty much in reality. It doen't really do anyone any good, but it is so far down the list of race issues that it's hardly worth worrying about.
Now, it the white person is religious, I doubt they would run the ad, ecause then there would be complaints.
Huh? I can't recall any commercials tinged with religion other than Christmas carols - I don't think skin color applies at all there. But I do remember a KFC commercial where two White priests were discussing chicken pot pies and one said at the end, "That sounds too good. I'll be seeing you at confession."
Mm-hmm.
Hopefully I am not taking that the wrong way but as a Catholic I would not be even remotely offended at that commercial if I saw it, there's even a decent chance I'd tell my priest about it. As for commercials picking on white people in general, is anyone surprised that the group in power can afford to be less sensitive then others? It kind of reminds me of the first episode of the Boondocks, when Huey dreams of confronting a bunch of rich white people with his political views and imagines them freaking out. When the situation finally happens, they just find him amusing. They know that there is no way this poor black kid presnets any real threat to their privalige. So when I see a commercial making fun of white people, I do not seriously think potential employers will then worry that I might be lazy based on my race.
Anyway I think commercials in general are mostly just shit and that's why this happens. Everyone feels the need to be "zany" or "out there" and so they have to make people look or do stupid things to get your attention while flicking around and whites dominate television so there really isn't a problem. The vast majority of commercials I see have all or mostly white people in them so I'd be kinda inherently surprised by seeing anyone of another race being put at the forefront of a commercial. Most people might be a little surprised to see an all black commercial even if the viewers were black since you just don't normally see that unless it's one of those family themed commercials clearly oriented towards them.
Basically whites end up being the biggest losers and winners on TV. They play the majority of gaming nerds in commercials and the majority of big strong Gillette razor users.
We get every single role on TV and in the movies it's basically the same. Whites play the majority of villains and heroes in movies and literature.
:?:
Indeed. That has me slightly more miffed, but hardly upset (NOTHING CAN DEFEAT THE PENIS!) than racial tropes in commercials--because, as has been pointed out, most modern commercials still feature white actors in every prominent role, so any racial implications are generally null. Not so much men and women.
When there's a man and a woman in a commercial, I can remember two commercials, one of which isn't even in circulation anymore, where they were either presented as actual equals or the woman was the one who did something silly and had to be corrected by her husband. I can remember far more that are really condescending towards men.
...to be fair, they're probably just making up for lost time. Even in the '90s there were commercials that were really just blatantly chauvinist. And of course, there's the men's body spray commercials, and men's razor commercials, and...okay, let's face it, most male hygienic products say "Buy our product and gorgeous women will want to fuck you". And have any of you seen commercials that ran in the '50s or '60s?
So, really, everyone's getting screwed by commercials. That's marketing for you.
The slight difference is the Gillette razor commercial doesn't have two guys of different races sharing the same screen. There are loads of commercials where a Latino Americans, African Americans, or Asian Americans look like dopes - I could list twenty right now - but when you mix races in the same commercial, the White guy gets hosed. If there's a person to be hosed, it's going to fall on the White dude.
Comedy sitcoms are more even - the middle-aged, overweight father is always either stupid or nuts and that spreads evenly with all races. Simpsons, Married with Children, The PJs, the George Lopez show, My Name is Earl, Margaret Cho's show, Everybody Hates Chris, etc. It's stupidity across the board across all races and that's the way I prefer it. Nobody perfect, everybody equally corny. :^:
They do make the commercials. The (minor) problem is they're scared to make jokes about other races. Who's going to make fun of Latino Americans if they're always bruising Caucasians with flying soda cans?
* for the kind of people who take their relationship cues from Everybody Loves Raymond, anyway, and I'm not sure those people don't deserve what they get because seriously, who does that?
Because it's no fun when you make jokes about Latinos? I'm sure there's commercials making fun of Latinos in Middle and South America. Those commercials are made by Latinos.
I dunno, it's just a theory. Quite frankly, I don't understand why you are offended by this, is it just because people make jokes about you?
That's just because black guys watch TV like this, while white guys watch TV like this.
How about this one?
Are we clever or are we whipped?
I'm gonna say generally yes, women are shown as more clever and strong in TV ads than men are. I base that off of nothing more than a gut feeling, of course.
Haha...PMS.
Bitches and their PMS
There are competent non-white sitcom husbands?
:?:
1) That's making fun of bad cell phone service more than anything else.
2) "If you're a dorky white guy, don't worry, you can still find an attractive, submissive Asian girlfriend."
3) Old turn of the century business tycoon stereotypes tend to be white.
4) Meh.
5) Don't steal from black people, they're more fleet footed than you are.
6) That one is just a horrible commercial.
7) "Black people do their taxes like this... 'Hey man, what's up? Chill, dawg.' White people do their taxes like this... 'oh look at me, I'm the uptight whitey.'"
Well, we are a minority.
Oh please, have you ever seen Bill Cosby cut open a chocolate cake, attempt to fill the hole with paper towels, cover it with icing, and hope that his wife wouldn't notice?
What's so competent about that?
http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/philip1.jpg !
Okay, he was a bit fat, but he was overall badass.
Also this guy wasn't too bad:
http://tvmedia.ign.com/tv/image/article/748/748260/familymatters-cast2_1164928680.jpg
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Dur.
White guy: Haha, you are so black!
Black guy: haha, you are so white!
White guy: You have to deal with things. We are not so different you and I.
Black Guy: for shizzle my nizzle! hizzouse!
and of course only after they've fought over the radio stations in country vs rap or something.
Of course.
He is cute, isn't he? In the way that a brand new puppy who just pissed on your shoes is cute.
Feral's right, tv makes everyone look stupid. There's just an added sense that a substantial amount of people will actually believe a stupid trope you promote about a minority group, because those tropes have been used to actually hurt and exclude people in the past, whereas the 'lol Homer' trope has never hurt a real life white male. So they're a little more uncomfortable-making.
I say again emenenememnemene, you're ignoring the way the competent-female trope is also the 'women ain't no fun and always ruin the boys fun, I say we go hide in our treehouse' trope. It means women often can't call men out on being childish without being cast as Teh Evil Mombot, and men often reflexively don't listen when women let them know they're being dicks.
I'm seeing it play out in my house right now: my male flatmate planned an entire sunday this past weekend where we'd get a bunch of really necessary house stuff done (like picking up a free washing machine). On Saturday night, he came home from work and declared he was going interstate for a holiday the next day. So now me and the other female flatmate are stranded with no way to wash our clothes, and a bunch of other minor problems that mean we're having to bug parents and friends for help (he has the only car in the household). He's basically ignoring both of us now, as we call him and try to get the washer at least sorted out long distance. When he gets back, we know he's going to make out that the entire thing is us being jealous of him having fun. And he's done this sort of thing before, too. Its completely fucked. Are sitcoms directly responsible? Probably not, selfish people will be selfish people, but I don't doubt that there's a subtle reinforcement of roles that we've all picked up from TV, movies, books, other people who watch and read and make these things. Its a big old circle of self-reinforcing stupid.
Here's one - a lady acts wild and naughty and ends up embarrassed.
I agree that TV eventually makes everyone look stupid. I disagree that TV will make make everyone look stupid when a White dude is around. Can anyone describe an ad when a Latino American or an Asian American looks like a sap in the presence of Whitey? That's already tough because Latinos are terribly underrepresented in TV ads.
The only commercials I can think of off the top of my head with Asian dudes in them is the Budweiser commercial with the "Wasabi" sushi dude, and the "I Am Man" Burger King commercial that has an asian business dude chopping a cinder block for no apparent reason.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vGLHlvb8skQ
That last one sorta proves Cat right - women are just holding back a man's good time.