“Race Becomes More Central to TV Advertising”
As a sociologist, I’m always reflecting on cause and effect. So, for example, once the parade is underway, does the horse pull the cart or does the momentum of the cart motivate the horse to keep moving? Did the Civil Rights Movement occur because Americans had altered their views about race? Or did their view points change largely because this movement got underway and led to cultural transformations that they could no longer ignore.
In a similar vein, what role do the mass media and advertising have in the continued alteration of our perceptions about people of different racial and cultural groups? Are media decision-makers telling us that multiculturalism is “hip” and we are now buying the message just like any other message? Or are the thoughts and standards of the public changing such that the magicians of Madison Avenue and Hollywood Blvd. must get on board the multicultural express.
When I see a brochure advertisement for Penn State with a photo of five people from five different cultural groups, there is a side of me that feels cynical, as though someone felt the need to be inclusive of everyone. A likely case of political correctness, I surmise. But at the same time, if I saw the same brochure with students of only one background, I’d be equally cynical and wonder what they were thinking to use such a photo. Like the statue of the children playing on the Hintz Family Alumni Center — who are all white. There’s just something about that statue that does not sit well with me.
And yet…I despise political correctness. And yet…what was the artist thinking? And yet…thankfully the artist didn’t go out of his or her way to find child models who were all ethnoracially different. And yet…why didn’t he or she do this?
It’s quite a “catch-22″–you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Clearly this article is telling us that we’re on the threshold of a new era of race relations and that it’s bound to be positive for everyone, even as there are sure to be a few bumps in the road as we move forward. What do you think?
I totally agree with Sam’s response to the MSNBC article on race and advertising. Multiculturalism does seem to be more of a “hip” thing these days. I believe the Civil Rights movement occurred for a number of reasons. First off, blacks began sticking up for their own rights and I believe white people began to feel disgusted with themselves for the way that we were treating them. Advertising has become an even more important aspect of businesses because of the increase of internet use amongst the population. From a business perspective it’s understandable why they would try and reach out to as many ethnic groups as they can to try and increase sales, but sometimes it gets to the point where it’s like “come on now they are taking this way too far”. I know everyone is thinking the same thing when they see an advertisement with five people all with different ethnic backgrounds.
It seems to me that if there are more than two different ethnic groups involved in one advertisement then they are pushing it a little too far. Incorporating various ethnic and racial groups into business/company advertising is now a necessity. If companies don’t take the effort to bring different racial groups together then they will be looked down upon. In the future it will probably be more difficult for businesses to appeal to all different ethnic groups as America is becoming less dominated by whites. Different strategies will need to be developed in order to draw in a larger audience so that they can advertise to all racial groups. Some of this seems a little too fake to me, but at the same time I realize what they are trying to accomplish. It’s hard to say whether or not this could be accomplished in a better way.
We’ve come a long way over the past fifty years trying to overcome racial barriers. It looks like it’s only going to keep improving and different ethnic groups will become closer as social networks continue to expand. In the future we may look at this post and ask ourselves what the big deal is. I worked with people all around the world this summer and it was a great experience. As companies continue to expand globally it is almost guaranteed that everyone will be working with someone with a different ethnic background. Hopefully this will improve relations amongst different races and there will be less hatred amongst people. There will always be different hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, but I believe over time those groups will begin to diminish. In conclusion I believe that businesses are doing the right thing by advertising to all ethnic groups in order to establish a multicultural based atmosphere.
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Being an advertising major, I found this article very relevant and interesting. When designing ads I can understand the inclusion of more diverse ethnicity groups interacting together. The ads can potentially reach a larger audience because people tend to relate more to other people of their own ethnic group. Do these ads really depict reality? No, in most cases I don’t think that they do. Advertising was never about depicting the world as it really is. I think the last statement of the article sums it up nicely stating, "Advertising is aspirational. It's who we want to be, a lifestyle we want — not always who we are." The problem is when creating ads, one has to now really think about what races to include in the ad. Race and ethnicity are always going to have to be addressed in an advertising campaign. If the designer includes all of the same race then the ad appears not diverse enough, but if they include too many races interacting together it may appear as if they’re trying too hard. It really is a Catch 22 as professor Richards stated. As far as if this is a trend being fueled by the media or if the media is simply responding to the trends in society I think it’s a little of both. Media and society fuel each other. Media is always trying to project what trends they see coming in the future, which in turn lead society in a sort of self fulfilling prophecy. I also feel that the advertisers main objective is still to promote brand image and in the end make a profit for the company. If including more ethnic groups in advertisements are yielding higher returns on investment than of course we are going to start seeing more and more racially diverse ads. I can also feel the shift in society that racially diverse relationships are becoming more and more accepted. The younger generation doesn’t see as much of a problem with multi-racial friends, couples, and families where as older generations may find those images off putting still. I would venture to say that products that have a target audience with an older generation wouldn’t use as much diversity in their ads as those geared toward the younger generations. Sometimes I wish that we didn’t have to think so much about being politically correct and worry about are we representing enough races in this poster or advertisement. I know just the poster that Professor Richards mentioned that has the five different racial groups represented on the Penn State poster. It was hanging up in my marketing class just the other day. I even remember looking at that poster and thinking that Penn State was seriously trying too hard. The reality is that that’s not a fair representation of the students at Penn State. And on top of that, those five students all with different racial backgrounds probably wouldn’t be hanging out together in a social situation. Racial groups tend to stick together. At the same time I can understand why Penn State chose to display the five different groups. Ads could be criticized either way and who’s to say what’s really right or wrong, but it sure is fun to think about it.
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I don’t think that the media is necessarily portraying multicultural ads for the purpose of expanding racial barriers. The media’s motives are often based on self-interest. I think the media is integrating more racial groups in order to reach out to a wider audience. It’s true that America as a whole is slowly progressing towards lowering racial barriers. The media, however, is not the effect of this progression. The media is simply trying to keep up with the values that are being taught to Americans in order to get a message across.
Although it is a slow process, I believe racial barriers will continue to lower as time goes on. I don’t think racism will ever be eliminated completely, but it’s hopeful to think that people can start to get over the issues that have been the root of racism for so many years. At least the media is helping us take a step in the positive direction towards accepting mulitculturism, regardless of their true motives. I think race is an issue that people are in a way too bashful to talk about. No one wants to be in a situation where they may say something offensive to another person. I think race needs to be put out in the open, and we shouldn’t be afraid to discuss it.
It’s interesting to see the integration of races not only on TV but also in other locations, as Sam said a Penn State brochure is an example. Penn State, as well as other colleges and organizations, is trying to reach out to all different types of people. I think the diversity movement is important because it’s necessary to create a setting filled with a variety of people. I think this is necessary because it allows for people to meet other people who may have a completely different outlook on life. How can one truly understand the human race in its totality without learning about the values and lifestyles of others? Even if you are a member of the dominant race, that does not permit a complete disregard to what is going on in the rest of the world.
In conclusion, America has made some great steps towards eliminating racism. Although I believe it will never be fully eliminated, we are getting closer and closer to being able to accept people who may not look or act exactly how we act. We shouldn’t be uncomfortable around people who may do things a little differently. I think it’s important to embrace people for their differences and take use those differences to better oneself and gain a broader perspective on the human race. What a person looks like or where a person is from seems trivial to me. There are so many more important issues, such as hunger and the need for shelter.
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"Race and Advertising — We're in a New World Now"
In this day and age, political correctness has become the norm. We have certainly “graduated” into a new era, where including people of all different backgrounds is not only prevalent but is expected. Our country has come a long way to deter some of the stereotypes of certain races and cultures. On billboards, magazines, commercials and all other types of advertisements you now see people of every race. In my opinion, there is a thin line between political correctness and just downright overdoing it.
Political correctness is something that is necessary. Without it, every type of race and culture would be offended in one way or another. Because people are always conscious of being politically correct, everyone is “happy.” No one can complain or be upset. It has become common in everything people do. If you adhere to political correctness, you can’t get in trouble or be criticized for doing the wrong thing or for not including all different types of people. Being politically correct is taking the easy way out. You make everyone happy but is that how you really feel? Some people worry about being politically correct so much that it hides their true feelings or their real message. For example, with the statue of children playing outside the Family Alumni Center, didn’t the artist depict all white children? If there was one child from all of the different races it may make you feel better if you are a minority, but is that what the artist really wanted to do? She shouldn’t have to worry about being politically correct all of the time. If she felt that an Asian boy would fit in her work, I'm sure she would have included him. However, she didn’t, so there shouldn’t be backlash because she expressed herself through her artwork in a certain way.
Now I’m all for treating everyone equally. However, when this comes in the way of the final product, that is when it needs to be curbed. When you are watching a commercial with 8 people in it, all from a different race and you notice it, that is when it has gone too far. When you look at something and immediately notice that they purposely chose each person from a different race to be politically correct, that is when expression is lost.
The problem is that there is no risk with being politically correct. There is with not being politically correct. No one can question why you included an Asian and a Black person in your Penn State brochure, but they can go after you if you have 8 white people. That’s when the negative feedback comes in that Penn State isn’t diverse, or they are treating minorities unfairly. With the diverse brochure, there is no backlash, no problems, so people are afraid to do anything differently.
As I have said, I see nothing wrong with being politically correct. I personally try to be politically correct in most of the things I do. For the most part, it’s the way to go. You don’t cause any problems and no one can frown upon you. But for things like advertisements or public displays, when it becomes obvious that the only reason there are two black people and two Asians in the picture is because you are trying to be politically correct, that’s when it should stop. When it is no longer natural, and it jumps out at you screaming that the author is trying to be politically correct, that’s when I have an issue. It should be natural to include blacks and Asians in things, and when placed in the right spots, go unnoticed. Nothing seems wrong with the picture. But when you have 5 people hugging and pretending to be best friends, when it is obvious they are not, that is where the line should be drawn. My main point is, that if you have to go out of your way to be politically correct, just don’t do it. Don’t fake it. If it’s natural and wont severely offend anyone, then there shouldn’t be a problem. For now, we will continue on our track of being politically correct, and hope that one day, it becomes natural to include different races.
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The end of this article sums up my feelings about marketing as a means to spread racial equality. It is all about the dollars for them, and rightfully so I suppose. I doubt that they think in terms of equality and progression, but rather are looking to mine the gem that is the budding multiethnic market. And while these marketers may find it profitable to portray their product along with a vision of an America that is completely ethnically integrated, it is simply not the case as it stands. The facts about African American salaries when compared to equally qualified white counterpart’s shows that apparently a white baby and a black baby can be friends but they will simply not have the same handicap in life. It is not all bad though, if marketing wants to portray a world of equality, and alleviate some racial tension people are so trepid to admit, I say all the better. Perhaps through sheer exposure to this type of advertising will help instill a more understanding ethnic climate throughout the states; I doubt it but why not try while peddling whatever product. The article does touch on the type of advertising that will be most effective and progressive in the future and that is creativity based advertising where the subjects while present and multiethnic are simply along for the ride of whatever product is being presented. This type of advertising is welcome but there is a point in some advertisements when you know what they are doing, and you can clearly see they just added a token race to add appeal to a larger market. I hope the ladder advertisements are a dying breed but I doubt it.
The concept of advertising is to get people to buy something, so if including other ethnicities in their attempt brings them increased sales, they will continue to pursue this advantage and expand upon its success. There will certainly be more and more multiethnic marketing, and an increasingly unrealistic portrayal of the American attitude. While everyone would like to say we live in a non racial world, it is simply not the case, and while the advertising fantasies grow, it seems like they are not really having any beneficial effect on other ethnicities across the country. There is still a schism between white and other ethnicities as is evidence by the pay for similar work. And while advertising companies run by white people propel this image of unification, families of other ethnicities are living off less for the same work. While I understand advertising is not really a tool for enlightenment, it would be nice if they stopped living in a world where everyone was unrealistically meshed together combining ethnic backgrounds so as to reach as many people as possible in the process. It comes across to me as money driven and pretentious.
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When it comes to the media and multiracialism I think that society’s viewpoints are certainly impacted by what it sees through advertising and other marketing tactics. Society always wants to be hip and be in with what the media is advertising. However, both seem to also influence one another. Society has been able to signal to the media that multiculturalism should be incorporated into the media because it has been a huge issue in society for so long. Ever since the Civil Rights Movement both society and the media knew that this issue was not going anywhere was something that had to be dealt with.
When I see brochures of a group of people that are of different races I appreciate the fact that the advertiser made the effort to incorporate a variety of backgrounds. However, I can’t help but think that they are trying too hard sometimes and that it shouldn’t be forced at times. I feel that we as a society should be able to just view it was being normal however, it is not a misconception in my mind that white people represent the majority of media especially on T.V. and advertisements in magazines. It seems that it is not normal for a group of different races to be on T.V. together for many people because in the beginning of television, it was not like this. This is why when Grey’s Anatomy first aired everyone praised the producers and writers for having such a diverse cast. The fact that we notice things like this says a lot about our society. Thus, I certainly agree with the “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” ideology.
I also agree that the road ahead is a positive one for expressing multiracialism. This new era of trying to represent a variety of backgrounds and races in our society through the media and advertising is certainly one that we must appreciate. If this was even a few decades ago not many people would be open to this new mindset. In a way the media has allowed society to view this to be acceptable and ok and even “hip”. One of the reasons American entertainment is so popular is because it is so diverse. After a society is exposed to such openness and appreciation for other cultures, going back to the way things use to be is just no longer an option.
Overall, I feel that media and society cannot exist without one another. One cannot be influenced by the other. However, the media does not always reflect the viewpoints of a society at large bur rather the views of certain groups. Thus, in this way these groups are able to influence society. Whichever group has a more prevailing argument is the one that will be able to influence society the most.
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Political correctness and race in advertising has been an issue which as always caught my attention. Its not that I feel a certain way about one race or another its that I really am amazed how much I and the world really do think about it. SImple physical characteristics of the person talking to me on t.v. or holding up a product in a magazine ad make such a difference its sad. As I look around my room I realize that I have surrounded myself with pictures of white people. Now I have now problem with other races.. but why have I only selected one race to put up on my walls. My animal house poster does not have a single person of color in it, nor does any other music or movie poster in my room. Do I truly feel more comfortable around white people? Can a black woman sell me a product the same way that a white woman can? Is it ok to place only white people in an advertisement because they are the largest demographic of people which the product is being sold to? I don’t know if the answer will ever be given.
The catch-22 of the situation is an issue which moat people rarely think about. If I were to make a commercial with 5 actors. How many of them should be of color? How many should be women? I guess it depends on the product. I was watching t.v. earlier today and I saw an advertisement or women’s deodorant. There were to girls. One was white and the other was black. They were both very pretty and I thought in the back of my head and laughed because I know it would not be socially acceptable to have a group of girls in this commercial where none of them were of color. So the commercial continued and both girls spoke on how much they loved the product. However, they were very similar. The black girl was a “white” black girl. Her hair was straightened and her clothes were seemingly bought from a store like abercrombie, aeropostale, or american eagle. These stores are all very “white” and some how that style makes me more comfortable with both girls. I felt like they would both fit in at my school. The white girl based on skin color and clothes and the black girl because of her clothes. I don’t know if its stupid but subtly it really does make a difference.
So what is the moral of this thought out story. I guess its that in the world we live in we want to be inclusive of everyone of every race. However, we are most comfortable with the people who look most like us. So it may be messed up but as long as everyone is cool with each other I have no problem with the current advertising situation.
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Many companies are using Americans of various races in their advertisement. By using multiple races in an advertisement, it helps to represent more acceptance of the diverse community that we live in today. These ads are choosing to connect with a wider audience by making minorities more visible in their advertisements. Whites and blacks are being placed together equally which shows how our nation is becoming more accepting of other more and more every day.
Words spoken by President Obama follow as, “Advertisers are also tapping into that same yearning, particularly among young Americans, to put racial divisions behind us and move forward in a more unified way.” He recognizes the growing acceptance that advertisers are using to encourage a positive relationship between different races and that it can only get better from here.
I believe that we are heading towards what the article called a “Multicultural Economy”. Since African-American buying power has risen so drastically, it is only bound to rise even more. People go to school, work, and interact with multiple races all the time. Marketers are realizing that their advertisements need to be targeted to a multiracial audience, not just one specific race.
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This blog jumped out at me while looking through Race Relations Project. Reading about the issue with race in advertising sparked my thought on the problems our culture still has with race. You could look at the issue in a politically correct light; every group should be represented as to portray that the ad does not discriminate towards anyone. You could also look at it through the realistic way; in reality the goal of the ad was to sell a product, not to make a racial statement. However you look at the issue it’s clear the tensions between races still hasn’t gone away. Will these tensions ever die down or will racial problems continue to plague our society?
Political Correctness is a train of thought that was necessary during the Civil Rights period. Some people wouldn’t accept integration into their society, and guide lines needed to be put in place to make sure all people were represented. Sure it is the right thing to do, fairly represent all reaches of the population, but at what point does it become unrealistic? When is there ever the perfect cross-hair of racial groups? Never; this politically correct thought doesn’t realistically represent our society. Not only is this thought unrealistic, the fact that there is a code of rules towards the correct way to act is a slap in the face of true acceptance. Having these guidelines on how to act though, makes the integration seem somewhat forced, overall making the representation meaningless.
The fact that I’m writing about this now shows there are still resounding tensions among the races. If you look at it realistically the issue on hand is an advertisement displaying different groups of people together, not a big deal by any standards. If we lived in a society truly free of prejudice we wouldn’t be bothered with these useless discussions over who was chosen to appear in an advertising campaign. The reason an advertisement displays people of all different racial groups at Penn State is to try and get people from all different racial groups to identify with one of the students in the advertisement and go to Penn State. This is improvement in our society, representing every race, for whatever reason is a sign of acceptance among races. The attention brought to the issue of race makes race more of an issue though.
Perhaps this is an “in-between” period before tensions dissolve among the races and we’ll all be able to get along without race being brought into every aspect of our life, no matter how small. Perhaps my idea is of an overly utopian society, impossible by any standards. Who knows, I don’t have the answer.
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When it comes to race in advertising, it is indeed tricky terrain. Especially if your medium is reaching many different audiences but your company wishes to especially focus on a specific audience. For instance, as a white, non-Hispanic female, I am for some reason very annoyed by the McDonalds advertisements that are so obviously targeting Hispanic females. The television commercial depicts a Latino woman drinking a McDonalds coffee. She speaks in an accent and walks with attitude. For whatever reason, I am bothered by its directness. So, is McDonalds, who is doing nothing wrong, hurting its relationship with me because it chose to aggressively advertise to another race? It’s interesting to think about and I would love to hear what a Hispanic woman felt towards the commercial.
Sam posed the question: Are media decision-makers telling us that multiculturalism is "hip" and we are now buying the message just like any other message? As for advertising, I can’t say. As mentioned above, companies are interested in being friendly to all races and yet reach their target audiences. Increasingly, television shows however, seem to make it “cool” to have a diverse group of friends. Not Another Teen Movie joked throughout the movie about “the token black guy.” Today, however, we seem to have moved passed that and the groups seem more realistic. For instance, in Entourage, Turtle appears to be Hispanic, Loyd is Asian, and some of E’s clients are black. This is just one example of a popular college show that shows a limited amount of diversity as “hip because these characters are all likeable and original.
Television, however, is unique from most of the other advertising methods. Print presents its own challenges. Many comments chose to discuss the college brochure example. This is probably because we have all noticed this type of perfectly diverse advertising and we have all rolled our eyes at it once or twice. It looks, for lack of a better word, cheesy. I agree with Sam. It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Everyone wants to see someone like themselves on that brochure. This, like many of the things we discuss in class, doesn’t seem to have one easy solution.
One particular comment to this blog post quoted, “"Advertising is aspirational…It's who we want to be, a lifestyle we want — not always who we are." This is one of the fundamental truths (or so we currently believe) to advertising. However, taking this idea and placing it with the catch-22 issue of “the diverse brochure” is interesting. Does this mean a student wants a group of friends with all different races? Doubtful. Some students may even get defensive. They may feel as though it doesn’t represent their group of friends—friends with whom they are quite happy. So then is this what the university wants to be? Possibly. They desire to have various backgrounds to increase the university culture and make it attractive to a wide range of students. I would be very interested to know more about how students, parents and college administrators reacted towards these brochures.
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It is difficult to determine if people are sincere about multiculturalism or if we are being persuaded by media. As I read the blog, I wondered about my own experience and feelings about it. I like to think of myself as an “open” person and fairly liberal. Is this just because I am a college student and surrounded by people with the same ideas? It certainty is possible. I think it is almost impossible not to be persuaded by peers, media, and also family. The more I hear about multiculturalism… the more intrigued I am. If people weren’t talking about these topics, I doubt I would be thinking about them either. This is a fairly sad idea for me as a student but true nevertheless. Maybe feeling this way is a positive step in a way to understand the problem and trying to fix it. Maybe if all people admitted that they were unsure of how they were persuaded we would be better off.
Since the 2008 election, I think people have tried to think about race and multiculturalism more. If Obama had not won or even attempted at office then I do not think people would be so keen on this topic. I do agree that there is a political correctness agenda and it is a mix feeling when I see everyone pretending that “everyone is being treated equal” when it isn’t so. But at the same time, at least we are trying. So, my question is…. Is it better to fake it? And if we fake it then do we start believing it?
As far as the advertising is concerned, they are making up whatever they want. There are many people in the world who solely rely on television to educate them about life. Some of these ads could be showing the peace between races or whatever but, in actuality there is still a lot of hate in the world. I don’t know if it is better to put a little bit of hope in TV ads or just say it like it is? There is obviously not as much hate as previous decades but it still lives today in America. I would like to see a representation of the good happening between races but also the actuality that there still is work to be done. There is good coming from these ads but we are not at the point in this country or world where we can all sing and hold hands around a campfire.
To tell you the truth, I am not sure if there will ever be complete forgiveness or understanding between races. I do feel the “white guilt” and when I see pictures of all races being accounted for I feel better but, still not completely satisfied
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This new brand of marketing is not aimed at the older generations of American society. Much of the article say that there are still race issues in America and that this kind of commercially is just used to it up with happy entopic settings. I see this differently than they do I see this as an attempt to reach the up and coming generations of America. Not the people who have parents that participated in civil rights. The kid people in our generation. For example the people that where in my high school none of them ever thought about race in almost any manner. Most took the thought of racial stereotypes as comical. The ideas that’s because someone is black that they like chicken and can dance while a white people automatically has good credit or horrible a sports is idiotic from my area. That is why this biracial advertising is happen because the youth that will make up the market place then the eventual day that whites are no longer the minority do see it as much importance. Having a entopic depiction in a commercial or movie doesn’t hurt racial acceptance it helps it. It allows people to become accustom to the occurrence of races just coexisting. So I encourage the idea of having biracial commercials even though its not exactly how society is today its still something that’s giving a positive image. Also I see the impact financially for these companies to have biracial ads. While people might complain that a commercial has too many races and just trying to look like they aren’t a racist company. If we saw a string of commercials that only had one race in it every time would grow many questions from people. It would hurt a company greatly to exclude races from advertising one because our country is a law suit can happen over the littlest thing but also because a major part of the growing consumers won’t by a product if not seen friendly towards their personal race. So if a company wants to stay in business for any period of time in America the company has to be racially open to the point that the consumers see a positive image of their own race in the commercial. I believe that is the main focus of these new strings of commercials for company. They aren’t worried about helping races coexist companies want to make large amounts of money no matter who they are making it from. So while these commercials, branding and movies all are becoming multicultural which possible could help later generations coexist in a more positive way. We must understand that these are just to make money off of the comfort that people have for seeing their own race on a product. The companies know this and want money from it which they are.
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I was actually really interested to see this post on the race relations blog. Race within Penn State has been something I can honestly say I’ve been thinking about ever since I moved in about a year ago. I feel like race is almost an issue at our school in light of how we interact with each other. On daily basis, whether it be going to class, the gym, or a party late at night, only a fool would fail to see the obvious ethnic and racial cliques that exist. On one hand, it makes perfect sense. Coming from a certain area, or a certain family life, background, religion, all of which whether people like to admit or not almost directly pertain to race and ethnicity, would cause you to look and automatically connect with someone of the same criteria. But on the other hand we are all people and should see beyond color and so forth, but sadly that’s just not the way it is. For example if you put 5 black and 5 white kids in a room I can bet my pocket in 15 minutes you going to see 5 white kids talking to each other and vice versa. Race and ethnic culture barriers exist, they just do and it’s obviously for a reason which I haven’t figured out yet. The article is exactly right, you will never see inner city school yard filled with white kids. To even think about it makes you laugh because its just so true.
So it somewhat annoys me when I see such commercials like ETRADE or PSU brochures displaying distinctly different races and ethnicities laughing and hanging out because that flat out just does not happen. I come from a racially diverse town, where I think the segregation is at its highest. I can more easily picture a black kid hanging with white kids when he’s the only one in the school right? But at my school when you have the opportunity to stick with people like you, even though its more racially diverse, more race problems exist. I feel like the commercial is just lying to us and themselves, a typical American approach of lets just say everything’s okay and pretend it is so we feel better about ourselves, whether we should or not.
In searching for some answer to this I think, maybe its actually better to have these commercials and brocures because it sends some kind of hope. Whether I see some inspiring race commercial or not, I’m still going to hang with my white friends more often than my black ones. So I guess its better to see it than not? Or maybe that’s just my typical white American-ness stepping again to convince myself its still okay to do what I do and I’m not wrong. I don’t know.
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I think that the media and advertising do play a huge role in the perceptions about people of different racial and cultural groups. However, the media decision makers aren’t trying to tell us that multiculturalism is ‘hip.’ Not directly at least. They are incorporating people of different races inadvertently making us subconsciously think that multiculturalism is all around us. While multiculturalism is becoming more predominant in our society, I believe that marketers are more there to sell a product rather than educated the world about the importance of bringing different races together. There are several other reasons why multiculturalism is taking hold on us.
Getting a product sold is very important to Marketers and Advertisers. I am a marketing student and in class we learn about the four ‘P’s’; product, pricing, placement, and promotion. The promotion portion refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company. As the article stated, an increasingly visible strategy that marketers are calling ‘visual diversity,’ has become a better way to earn profit. By having people of different races and ethnic backgrounds interact together in a commercial, they are able to target a wider range of people. For example, in the ETRADE baby commercial, only recently have they added the black infant. People tend to pay attention and are attracted to commercials with their own ‘type’ of person. If there had been two white infants in the commercial, Latinos, Asians, and African Americans would have been less inclined to pay attention. The addition of the black infant drags more African Americans into the product. There are commercials all over television now that try and attract two or more races all in one. This is the main reason why the main purpose is not to bring people together.
Take the Penn State brochure for another example. If there were all white kids on it, do you think that blacks, Asians or Latinos would want to come here? Perhaps, but the chances are slimmer. If someone is applying from overseas, they are going to make sure that there are people of their background at Penn State as well or else they would feel really out of place at first if they have never been exposed to white society. The creators of the brochure are trying to attract all different audiences. Where do we draw the line though? I agree with Sam. If there were only international students it would be equally as cynical as if there were only whites.
I think that the thoughts and standards of the public aren’t solely based on advertisements though. One major reason for the increase in multiculturalism is the fact that there are more immigrants from all over the world and it is hard to go a day without seeing someone of a different race on the streets. We are becoming more familiar with interacting with people of different ethnic backgrounds. I attended an international school and have grown accustomed to having friends of all different backgrounds. Since I was exposed to the multiculturalism at a young age, I have learned that despite our appearances and beliefs, everyone is virtually the same.
As the article stated, whites are slowly moving towards becoming the minority. Eventually we are going to have to start bringing our different cultures together even more so than they already are. Advertisements may show us what it is like to have relationships with those of different races, but we are becoming more used to the idea of living together just by interacting with one another in our society.
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The issue of race in advertising is certainly a catch-22. This is particularly true at a rural university such as Penn State. We find it irritating when advertisements use all white actors and models, because it seems to insinuate that we, the audience, want to see all white actors and models. It suggests that we are viewed as a discriminatory or prejudiced audience. But we also find it irritating when advertisers use an almost “impossible” blend of actors and models of all races and ethnicities, because it insults our intelligence. Anyone can see, as they walk around the University Park campus, that the large majority of students are white, and that the minorities tend to socialize with those who are most racially or ethnically and culturally similar to themselves. Advertisers cannot win either way. They are both obligated to and criticized for designing advertising that best represents their target audience. At the same time, they are both obligated to and criticized for designing advertising that highlights diversity.
In my opinion, no matter which route advertisers take (and this applies to issues beyond race and ethnicity), there will be audiences who relate and respond positively to advertisements that other audiences will simultaneously dislike and criticize. This emphasizes that Americans are not only racially and ethnically diverse, but also, diverse in tastes, interests, values, goals, and aspirations.
What it comes down to is money. As Supernova said in a recent post, “The only color marketers are at all concerned about is the color green.” Advertisers know that they face a racial catch-22. They also know that they will face criticism on issues beyond race and ethnicity, such as age, gender, social class, sexual references, language, violence, and the sense of humor used in ads. But at the end of the day, making a “perfect” and politically correct ad is not the goal. The goal of advertisers is to make their clients happy by reaching the target audience and maximizing profits from the ads. An advertisements’ first goal is almost always to sell either a product or a service. Although values, tastes, and lifestyles are often being peddled through advertisements as well, the number one goal of an ad is to sell the product or service, maximize profits, and minimize the financial losses from funding the advertising campaign.
So concerning the issue of race in advertising, American advertisers seem to be making great strides by recruiting actors and models of all races and ethnicities and by facing the catch-22 head-on. It seems to me that we need to spend less time analyzing and criticizing the messages and images of advertisements (which are, at their core, simply selling and then collecting profits), and spend more time analyzing the race relations in our immediate social and academic environments.
While McDonalds commercials never fail to make us crave that Big Mac or McNuggets with a large order of fries and a large soda, they aren’t as successful at getting us to socialize with people of different races and ethnicities. Diversifying our social environments is not a product or service that can be bought or sold, diversifying and letting go of stereotypes and prejudices must be achieved through individual decisions made by all of us.
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The media has an ever growing influence on our lives, and with that there comes a certain level of responsibility. How does an advertisement show multi -racial relations without making it seem as if they’re using it as a tool to broaden their market? Advertisements like the E-Trade babies or the Pepsi commercials have both positive and negative aspects to them. On one hand they exhibit multi-racial connections that can make a society feel more comfortable. Since the media has such an influence on us seeing multiple races together can alter the ideals we once had, and we can become more comfortable being around different people. On the other hand it sickens us to see advertisements blatantly illustrate multiple races. By putting someone of every background on the Penn State brochure it creates an even greater difference between us. They were chosen for that brochure because of their color to induce people of all races to come to Penn State. By choosing people at random it would better demonstrate how their races simply do not matter, we’re all here for the same reasons.
The intentions of these ad’s can be taken either way. Even as recent as twenty or thirty years ago the amount of non-white races seen on T.V. was significantly lower. The changes came about for many reasons, however not all of them with the best intentions. If the target audience of any product was primarily white the sales would be concurrent with them. There is no doubt that in some cases multiple races were used in advertisements to simply broaden markets. There was a time when using mixed races was not the answer to their dilemma. My father used to deliver beer and back in the 70’s when Anheuser Busch (Budweiser) created a malt liquor called “Jaguar” that was strictly aimed towards black drinkers. It was irrefutably racist and it was only delivered or advertised in areas that were predominately black. The use of multi-racial ads did have a positive effect by making it more of a norm to be with people different than us. It seems that even the wrong intentions can still have a positive outcome.
It’s a slippery slope, we analyze why there happens to be one of every race on a school brochure but isn’t that what we’re looking for? By calling attention to it simply makes it seem as if there is something askew. I look forward to a world where we can look past our race, but by calling attention to why there are multiple races in some advertisements is doing the exact opposite. Regardless of how or why advertisements use mixed races, it is up to the individual viewer to determine the value of what they are doing. I feel as if you even take notice we have not come far enough.
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This is just another one of those topics that get brought up with this new race agreement stuff going on. The world is personally one big chess game of who can make the next best moves ahead of the next pawn to get to the queen. Personally I am tired of the race card and all of the racial hype, which seems to control politics and the world lately. No matter which way the world tries to alleviate the fact of minorities being discriminated on past and present, it still does not matter. There will always be racism in the world yesterday, today, and tomorrow because people aren’t really susceptible to change.
Being an African American personally I do not really care for companies being multicultural in their advertising because they were not always nor were they before this big race equality thing. It is all a bunch of bullshit if you ask me. It is not sympathetic or sincere in what they are doing. It’s just a big scheme and scandal to get ahead of the next person, in whom they can make money and looked out as a humanitarian at the same time. Honestly, they should just keep things they way they were. Now we have fake ass people walking around trying to be hospitable and what not because of the race equality.
I wonder what the white people think about things like this, since I honestly believe they have never really had the same type of discrimination or hatred from a different race. And no Jewish people is not a race, Judaism is a religion. White people to me just sit in the passenger seat cruising through life with nobody really to look down on them. And no I am not the white man this and that type of people, but I do believe that they have it easier in ways in which they will never understand. Everyone is responsible for what their future holds and what they do with the one life that they have.
Business executives only look out for themselves and their business. As long as they can appeal to other consumers and expand their target they are well in hand. All this advertising is only making them more money because viewers see that it appeal to everyone, so that no one feels left out. The advertising is how they make majority or their money because it has to appeal to the audience, which in turn go out and buy the merchandise. As a consumer you read it and think wow that product is all inclusive so to say. It does not discriminate or have any barriers in who can use it. Being that most of the products commercially are not really for the African-American race.
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Race and Advertising
I completely agree with Professor Richards. Most people get surprise when they realized that people of the same race are in a brochure or some other type of advertisement, but they also get surprise when they see that there are people of different races together in the same brochure/ advertisement. If in an advertisement there are only white people in the picture, most people believe that there should also be people of other races, but when they put people of other races together, the first thing that comes to most people’s mind is that they did that because they felt obligated to put some people of other races in the picture. This problem is the same for Television shows. Most television shows have people of one race, and most of the time they throw some character of a different race. When I see that, I feel like the director felt obligated to put that person in the show, so that people cannot say that the TV show shows racism.
I grew up in Puerto Rico and moved to America when I was 15 years old. I really didn’t know what racism was all about till I moved here. I never thought that people care about people’s skin color as much as they do here. In Puerto Rico, I never saw a Puerto Rican with dark skin different than a Puerto Rican with white skin. I always just looked at them as Puerto Ricans and that was it. Here in American, when they see some one the first thing that they notice is the person’s skin color. I do not think this is necessarily wrong or something people need to be ashamed of but it is definitely something we need to talk about rather than keep cooped up inside.
When people hold back their feelings and beliefs it leaves room for others not to understand their way of thinking. Some people may be more sensitive to the subject of race than others due to a personal experience or cultural background. Either way everyone should be able to express themselves without judgment or criticism. Everyone needs to stand up for what they believe and say what is in their minds.
People need to understand that because some is of a different race, it does not mean that they are different and that they should be treated differently. We need to try to interact with people of other races and learn about their cultures. We should not feel obligated to interact with people of other races; instead it should be something we would want to do.
This race advertising blog is really interesting and very true. We all need to start interacting with people of other races and try to learn a little bit about their cultures. We need to make this world a better place!
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These new racially diverse commercials springing up across the country are creating the long needed push towards stronger racial relations. The commercials, to me, are evidence of a shift in society’s attitudes towards supporting a multi-cultural workforce. America is the melting pot of the world; there are probably hundreds if not thousands of races of people that are living here in the states today. The fact that it’s almost impossible to find a group of people that are fully “Caucasian” or 100% African American shows just how diverse America has become over the years. This commercial for ETRADE financial corporation, an online stock brokerage service, provides a comedic and enjoyable look at interracial connections. I believe that the workplace is changing and to be quite frank I think it’s almost impossible to find a job that doesn’t have racial diversity. A previous anonymous blogger commented that “Advertising is aspirational,’ she adds. ‘It's who we want to be, a lifestyle we want — not always who we are’ this definitely sums up my views on the topic of race in advertising.” With regards to racial advertising I don’t agree with this. Maybe the underwear models in those Calvin Klein commercials are people we want to be but obviously aren’t but I think racial commercials are a different story. My father is the top selling salesmen for Berlitz International, the largest language company in the world, and he was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His boss is from Tokyo Japan, and all of his colleagues are of a different nationality. I live in Dallas, Texas one of the most conservative and racially un-accepting states in the U.S. yet my entire life I’ve looked up to my father and his colleagues. My mom works for American Airlines and the last time I visited her for lunch it was like being in a room with the multi-cultural club. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Indians, Asians all of these people are working together and id say you’d be hard pressed to hire an all white workforce in today’s day and age. These advertisements aren’t showing us how America could be, there showing us how America already is. These commercials are pushing Americans to accept the new shift in racial acceptance, and I believe its working. Some of the most needed jobs in America today are with computer companies. Technology is now the way of the future and we need to start hiring workers that have extensive computer skills. And who has the most experience with these types of things?? Asians! If you don’t believe me just call Dell for any range of computer problems, you’ll be transferred to their representatives in India! We can’t deny that America has changed and will continue to support change in our multi-cultural workplace.
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I found the topic of this blog post to be very interesting because this situation is something that I have definitely noticed and thought about before. It is absolutely true that companies, schools, and other organizations try to show images of a sort of utopia that depicts several people of different races interacting as if they were best friends. I am not saying that this is not possible, but unlikely. Like Sam had written in his blog, I feel that these organizations always “feel the need to be inclusive of everyone”, even though in actuality in may not appear like this at all. I too can’t help to feel cynical about this awkward situation because having images excluding certain races or having only one certain race would seem awfully politically incorrect, offensive, or uninviting.
This situation makes me think about segregation. Even though we’re not segregating water fountains or facilities anymore, segregation is something that has been around for a long time and still ceases to disappear. Even though many of the examples I am about to give are by no means done because of hatred, I still consider them segregation. My first example is BET, a television channel made entirely for black entertainment. This kind of shows the huge differences in culture of different races and how it is not too surprising that not every group of friends is as diverse as the images in these brochures and websites. There are Hispanic, black, and even Asian communities in Greek life that I feel increase this segregation at school. I am not saying it is racist in any way, but the fact that these students feel more comfortable interacting with their own race is eye opening, but does not at all surprise me. I admit that I have more white friends (I am white) than any other race because I feel as if that’s the way it is these days because of certain interests and culture that we are accustomed to. Offensive terms such as “wigger” pertaining to white people who follow the African American culture or “oreos” pertaining to black people who socialize with more white people really reinforce this barrier that is segregation and discourage anyone to blend in with other racial groups. I really do wonder if things will always be like this, and that maybe one-day life will actually appear similar to those brochures.
As for the media, it absolutely plays a large role in promoting multiculturalism, and always has. A good example of this is the characters on television shows. Even though some television shows have a main racial group as characters, it seems that there is always at least one “cool black friend” or “nerdy white friend” that is thrown into the cast in order to not have a completely homogeneous cast.
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Currently I am 21 years old, and from the time I was in middle school I had noticed a shift in advertisement tactics every time I turned on a television, opened a magazine, or even passed by a billboard on the highway. These tactics were very distinct and identifiable where companies and industry giants introduced who they were targeting as their new customers.
As I was growing up people of color never seemed to make an appearance in any mainstream media. If it weren’t for certain programs like Telemundo, or BET, I would be totally unaware of the roles of people of color in the united states today. Thankfully growing up in New York, 35 minutes outside of Manhattan I had the privilege of growing up in one of the most diverse communities on earth. Although my upbringing there may leave me ignorant to what the social status in regards to people of color were in other parts of the nation, I was very aware that not as many people were as fortunate as I was. Coming to college in central Pennsylvania I have met students who had never even seen a black person in their entire lives, only on TV. And because they had never seen black people or any other person of color in their community, they perceived people of color to have a very limited role in society, and the role that they did play was thought of to coincide only with what was told to them in the media.
I now realize for those growing up in an isolated area, where people within the community are all of the same color, coming to college must have been an enormous culture shock. Personally I am not surprised when I see the reaction of others. I accept it and embrace it. It pleases me to see the surprised faces that are unfamiliar with other races but their own. It shows how we as a nation have overcome since times of segregation. It shows how although America remembers these times of segregation all too well, their faces display disbelieve that some may have thought America although partially integrated would remain segregated. But now with people of color having increased their purchasing power, if companies would like to keep profiting at the expense of consumers, they seek to expand their target market to increase revenue. Through these advertisements they note the different successes of each person’s that are non-Caucasian. And this puts a smile on my face because every day that passes America continuously changes socially. Different neighborhoods throughout America are becoming more integrated, and companies are trying to reflect these changes through advertisements. Although they are just looking to increase revenue, companies and different ad campaigns are doing much more than that. They are in my opinion bringing the nation closer together, in that they are expanding the comfort zone of each and every American every time an ad when people of different color are interacting on a positive note.
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For my journal entry I chose to respond to the post about “Race seems more central to TV advertising”. I found this article very interesting because whether you like to admit it or not you notice when there are mixed races in a TV commercial or advertisement. I think that it is important to represent all races but it is a little much when you’re watching TV and it’s like a United Nations meeting. In my younger generation we all have hopes that race will no longer be an issue but these TV commercials are somewhat a reminder of how far we really have to go. Quoted from the article, “It is not likely that you are going to find Asians and Latinos dancing the night away in the same hip hop club” is so true. I believe that advertisers are mostly doing these multi-racial ads for money making purposes. They want to appeal to ethnic groups and races, which in my opinion is fine. The real issue here though is everyone just needs to GET OVER IT. Who cares if Cash4gold.com represents two different races, does this really even need to be brought up? Although these ads may not be realistic they are representing our country moving forward into a less racially mixed country. Maybe because this is kind of a new phenomenon of representing all races in ads that is why we are not used to it yet and look at it as odd. But like everything else once you see things over and over again it will become the norm. If the different races were not portrayed in the media then people may not think that it matters when in actuality it really does matter. I notice that in a lot of the media multiculturism is shown as cool or “in style” so people may be more inclined to accept to it. It is important for the media to portray political correctiveness also. I believe that either way people are going to complain that the media is not portraying reality but if the media did not show multi-races in ads then they would be deemed as racist. I think that if the media keeps up with the idea of using multi races it would benifit us. Obvisouly living in a world where you can be in little Italy, New York then walk a few blocks over to China Town we need to be fair to everyone and represent the diverse world that we live in. I do not feel as if the media needs to go out of there way to show all races in the ads but since it is all marketing schemes to sell products then more power to them. After reading Jamies post I completing agree that it is unrealisitic coming to Penn State and opening a brochure of 5 people who all different races. I also do not consider Penn State to be a very diverse school.
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The fact that advertising companies feel the need to be politically correct and try to include a multitude of different racial groups in their ads has always baffled, and to a certain extent, irritated me. Our society has gotten to the point where any views or opinions that are considered “politically incorrect” are quickly stifled and condemned. While in many cases this is justifiable, other situations are manipulated by this obsession with political correctness. When I see an ad with four individuals, one black, one white, one Asian, one Hispanic, I immediately take a cynical viewpoint. In what sort of perfect, alternate universe does a tight knit group of friends include one person of each race or ethnicity. This is not to say that people of different races are incapable of being friends, which is obviously false, but the fact of the matter is that people tend to associate and relate better to people of their own race. This is exactly the reason I find those types of ads a bit hard to swallow; ad companies fabricate a seemingly happy, multiracial group of people interacting in harmony in the hopes of not offending anyone. By doing this however, they are just perpetuating the imperialistic idea that all things in this country must be politically correct, otherwise they cannot possibly be viable.
Political correctness should never, ever impede an organizations ability to create an ad that reaches out to its target audience. For example, a country club newsletter or advertisement, realistically, has no need to include members of each race in its photos, because the overwhelming majority of country club members are white. Regardless of a person’s stance on this seemingly unjust social institution, there is simply no reason that the country club should feel reserved in creating a piece of media that can relate and branch out to their targeted group of people and help achieve their overarching goal of recruiting new members.
Simply put, politically correct advertisements may be the only acceptable solution to marketing in this day and age, but it is difficult to argue with the fact that ads specifically designed for, and depicting, a certain type of target audience are much more successful and frankly, more practical . I’m all for equality and racial harmony, but when achieving these things forces people to advertise and market their goods and services in a less efficient way, I see no reason why being politically correct is necessary. Label it what you want, but when politics overtake profit and success, in my mind something has gone terribly wrong. The sooner that these so called less than politically correct ads are no longer scrutinized and disallowed, the better the advertising industry will be. Again, racial harmony is a beautiful thing, but personally, profit and success are more my cup of tea.
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When Sam mentioned a Penn State brochure with a photo of students from five different backgrounds, I nodded. It reminded me how I had felt before I came to Penn State, and I believe that would be what most international students struggle and succumb to. Those types of advertising pictures with people of diverse backgrounds happily get around together with big smile face on brochures are not limited to college brochure, but also all other institutions, including high school and language training programs and even elementary school in America. I want to come up with an example that clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of those deceptive, yet smart advertisements using the race. In Korea, there are not many foreigners like in the United States; if you go out to the street, you have a very limited chance to encounter anyone from foreign country. Under the condition that all Koreans share the same physical appearances such as straight black hair with yellowish skin and black eyes, it is very surprising and exciting experience to see someone with blond hair, blue eyes, or dark skins as Koreans have such a limited opportunity to encounter those people with different race. That results in one of the leading businesses in Korea, a private institution in which helps Korean students to explore American schools and get an admission. As most Koreans has a strong curiosity and fantasy towards American academic institutions and people of different ethnicity, those business owners usually create and show a brochure with a picture of a Korean student surrounded by European Americans and African Americans. This leads people to think that they will meet all those people and become really close friends if they go to America; however, the reality is not. Most international students are frustrated with the reality when they find people normally hang out with someone with same racial background, more clearly, people who share culture value and language with them. People who are so used to the illusion created by those happy faces of diverse group of people on brochure advertisement finally find themselves in the middle of discrepancy and begin to question themselves: What is race and what lead them to come to the United States? In this case, I cannot deny the influence of the picture of a Korean surrounded by whole different racial groups. This picture representing different racial groups plays a very important role in influencing Koreans both psychologically and socially. When Koreans see the pictures, they are inspired to go to American college and want to make European-American and African-American friends. However, one interesting thing that I noticed is there are only White and Black Americans in the advertising pictures which created by Korean institutions; that makes Korean international students have certain difficulties when they see people from Middle East or India. Those advertisements with only European Americans and African Americans make Koreans mislead they are friendly and familiar with only those typical images of so-called Americans while other ethnic groups not on those advertisements are very unfamiliar. This fact also shows that Koreans think there are only White people and Black people in America, not other racial groups. Koreans normally don’t realize the US is the melting pot before they arrive. This misunderstanding from advertisement certainly influences people in some way. One thing clear is that if the Korean advertising companies reveal the truth, nobody will come to the United States while this leads to many discrepancy among international students.
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Generally speaking, a greater degree of multiculturalism reflected in modern advertising is certainly a good thing. As America becomes more demographically diverse, advertisers have no choice but to reflect this growing diversity in their ads. The question, however, is whether these ads are genuine in their multicultural sentiment or merely capitalizing on the doctrine of political correctness for monetary gain.
In America, the media is a powerful tool for shaping people’s opinions and feelings on a wide variety of issues. In that respect, the media holds a very important role in shaping the public opinion. This reality has both positive and negative aspects. Positively, the media (particularly the advertising industry) holds the power to foster social progress and eradicate old ways of thinking. However, their methods are often hollow and speak to degree of ease in which some people allow their thoughts and feelings to be manipulated. Will many Americans come to accept the realities of multiculturalism because of a genuine desire to better themselves and society or because the media tells them that it is the way of the future? Whichever the case, this greater display of multiculturalism in advertising is inarguably good for society and long past due.
A factor that cannot be ignored in this analysis is the matter of capitalism. As the MSNBC article discussed, the purchasing power of minority groups has increased dramatically in the past decade compared to the national average. From this standpoint, ethnic and racial minorities can no longer be ignored when marketing products and services. In the past, companies could afford to be ethnically homogeneous in their advertising. If they were to do so today, they would risk alienating a large segment of potential customers. As this trend continues, multiculturalism in advertising will likely become the norm and not a new phenomenon.
An unfortunate aspect of this new trend is the appearance of forced political correctness. Often times, it seems that advertisers are afraid to show a group of people who are not ethnically diverse for fear of not appearing inclusive. In this manner, the media has begun to show a distorted vision of reality. Though their intentions might be in the right place, this type of political pandering actually breeds cynicism in the hearts of many viewers. Political correctness is the most hollow and short-sighted attempt to foster acceptance of multiculturalism. Essentially, political correctness seeks to distort reality and prevents honest discussion of racial and ethnic issues for fear of offending someone. This is dangerous because the real differences and misunderstandings that exist between cultures cannot be confronted in an open and honest setting. If the truth cannot be uncovered, our society’s understanding of multiculturalism will remain superficial and incomplete.
Achieving any real progress is a long, difficult process. Though there are certainly flaws in the way the American media has went about approaching multiculturalism, the fact that it is being addressed at all is progress in itself. Hopefully, as time goes on and the country becomes even more diverse, multiculturalism in advertising will become a genuine reflection of reality and not just a tool for political correctness and market capitalization.
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This is my first journal entry for SOC 119 so allow me to get some thoughts out of the way before getting into it. First of all, regardless of the implications of their respective races, those babies are so amazingly cute. Second, it is amazing that you, Sam, have blogged about the things you have. I often think about. The problem is that I, as a man of color who finds it difficult to identify with any one racial, ethnic, or cultural group, feel as though I have no forum to discuss these issues. The white people I grew up with either find it too uncomfortable to discuss these issues openly or are too ignorant or conservative in their ways to recognize that there exists an issue to discuss.
I too have observed many advertisements that attempt to demonstrate multiculturalism and open-mindedness by deliberately including people of varying colors, shapes, and sizes. The cynical side of me immediately notices this and identifies it as artificial. When I think about it further, I think about the general trend in this country toward political-correctness, which, in my opinion, means saying things that don’t offend people, though more to avoid confrontation then to show respect and understanding for the differences between one another. With political correctness in mind, it makes sense to have a baby of color in the ad. First of all, I speculate that people are more likely to identify with others who are similar to them. Since advertisements are too brief in nature to portray the true characters of the actors and models in them, we only have physical appearances to judge and with which to identify. As a person of color, I better identify with the black baby then the white baby, as I imagine other people of color do to. If we can relate to the characters portrayed and their need to consume the product advertised, we are more likely to want to consume and therefore purchase that product. Thus, the artificial attempt at respect, what we know as political correctness, which advertisers attempt, is just good advertising – good business, broadening their target market to people of different colors, shapes, and sizes. So I agree, depending on the general viewpoint of consumers, the advertiser is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
As a consumer, all I can ask from those trying to sell me often useless material products is for honesty. When Penn State releases a pamphlet or ad with five people on the cover, each of a noticeably different ethnicity, it’s not only disingenuous because it is an insincere attempt at respect, but because it’s dishonest. An appropriate reflection of Penn State diversity might be four white people and one person of color, most of them dressed relatively similar. The message of diversity is no longer there, but at least it’s honest. Such an ad would make note of our differences without trying to artificially mask our similarities.
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long comment from above continued…
Similarly, when I see a black baby sitting next to a white baby known for his very cute spot on the E*Trade commercials, the truth of the matter is, what makes the ad strike us immediately as disingenuous is that it too is dishonest. When I dig into the question of why, I realize it’s because it doesn’t make sense for a black baby to be sitting next to a white baby. It’s just not typical. There’s nothing wrong with it, but having grown up in an upper-middle class suburb and having graduated with high school class consisting of approximately 93% white people, to me, placing the two babies next to each other just doesn’t seem like an accurate depiction of reality. It’s unfortunate, but the truth is that ignorance, hatred, socio-economic differences, and the comfort of being part of a community to which we can relate, among other things, prevent, to this day, commingling of races. Political correctness, which I too despise, rather than being a humble attempt at respect for the differences one another possess, has become a source of fear of offending others and of being prejudged as ignorant. Rather than confronting that fear by exposing ourselves to diversity and enlightening ourselves on the differences of others, we run from it by surrounding ourselves only by those who are distinctly similar to ourselves. The inconvenient, the reality of it is fear and the result of that reality, though unfortunate, is that it is dishonest to deliberately put those two babies next to each other.
In regards to the statue of the white children at the Hintz Alumni Center, it’s interesting you bring that up because a colleague of mine at my engineering firm designed that area, known as Foundry Park. The firm lacks diversity so much so that it probably didn’t occur to the designer to depict diversity because it’s not something he regularly encounters. Though it just may not seem right to some, to me, at least it’s honest and to my knowledge and from my experience, the designer’s intentions were noble.
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I feel the advertisement with the white baby and the black baby portrays a sense of diversity and equality in this era that we live in. Once upon a time, neither blacks nor any minorities would be seen on any advertisement in front of your television or in a spread of a magazine. Our society has come along way and is still making progress from certain things we have had in the past. On some advertisements whether it be on television or in a magazine, it should include people of different races. The reason I feel this way is because if we only had white people on every advertisement what message would that be sending to the minorities? We live in America; a melting pot made up of many different ethnic backgrounds. It would basically be showing a misrepresentation of what America really is. Although some people may feel race is not really an issue in advertisement it definitely has an impact on consumers. Some may think why have an Asian, a black person, an Indian person, or a Hispanic person all in one ad? We should cater to all races not just maybe the white race, which has once upon a time been the most dominant. Most races would feel a certain type of way if they weren’t included in an advertisement. I think people are starting to embrace the fact of diversity and equality. It might be hard for some people to say but all in all, we are coming together in every aspect that we once have struggled before in. As stated in the article, Penn State advertisement shows much diversity, having students on the front of their brochures made up of many different races. I feel this is very important advertisement for such schools because it basically attracts all ethnic groups to the school. If you only had one race on the front of Penn State’s brochure it would make people not want to come to their school. Displaying diversity at schools I believe makes them successful in and out of the classrooms. It also gives an opportunity for students of different ethnic backgrounds to come together and embrace one another’s culture. When watching an advertisement on TV or maybe reading an ad in a magazine, I sometimes do find myself to focus much on what the race of the person or persons might be. When I see maybe an advertisement with black people I feel a bit surprised. Myself being a minority I guess I’m just not used to seeing much advertisement with minorities. I feel there has been somewhat of an improvement with more races being included in advertisement. I feel certain strides like this can make people understand diversity is a good thing and not something we just show because it is the “right thing”.
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In opinion, I feel that the advertising is much better now than it was in the past in terms of diversity. Back in the day, there was complete bias in the companies as far as what race of ethnicity they wanted to represent their company on any advertisement with their name. You rarely saw an African American or Mexican advertisement clothing. I think this is a positive change because these actions are a result of more businesses becoming more and more culturally response and aware. Although advertisements have gotten better, unfortunately some people’s attitudes have not. If an African American and a Caucasian walk in the store, who do you think the employee will follow? Most likely the African American would get watched while the Caucasian is getting away with stealing. Maybe this is not true everywhere but it still exists in a lot of places. Getting back to advertisement, I feel that the advertisements today should be in line with the display, showing that they are culturally responsive. I am going to touch a little bit on the Microsoft article because this kind of ties into that. I feel that Microsoft changed the African American face to a white face maybe because they did not think that the face would best represent the audience. I think they tried to cover it up with the explanations that they were displaying an interracial person. But yeah, advertisements have come a long way and hopefully every company soon feels comfortable with displaying the diversity of their companies. These two articles are prime examples of how things are changes and also of changes that need to be made in the future.
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The article I chose to read about has to do with the increasing amount of multi-racial commercials we are starting to see in our society. I think that these multi-racial advertisements are a positive in today’s culture. Sure, they may not depict accurately what real life is like for people of different racial and economic backgrounds, but they do convey positive messages of unity and togetherness in our society. I’m all for these advertisement companies trying to show how we all as people should be living amongst one another while still successfully selling their products in our culture. There were a number of things that surprised me from reading this article. One of the things had to do with advertisements making the switch in a sense of who they are marketing too. When I was younger growing up I don’t remember seeing all the multi-racial advertisements that I’ve seen over the last few years. The article talks about how the combined buying power for African-Americans, Asians, and Native-Americans has gone up dramatically increased since 1990 to 2007. Latino buying power in particular has gone up a whopping 307 percent since over that same span. White-American buying power has only gone up 124 percent since 1990 which seems low when stacked up against the numbers of different racial groups in our country. One of the most interesting statistics that I came across had to do with non-whites will become the majority around 2042 in America. While that doesn’t surprise me because I always felt that eventually whites would become the minority in this country, I kind of figured that it would take a lot less time than 30 or so years to do so. Not surprising when you consider all of the different racial groups we have within our country, and on top of that all of the people that immigrate to this country yearly. Now because of these numbers, the commercials and ads we see in our everyday lives really reflect on the idea that America is one giant melting pot. From this information advertisement companies know that they have to attract a huge population of consumers that are made up of many racial backgrounds. If not who are they going to market to when they become the majority around 2042? Marketers are starting to address this situation far ahead of schedule. Probably the most interesting statistic I came across, “Sixteen percent of large advertising firms employ no black managers or professionals; in the overall labor market, 7 percent of companies are without blacks in those positions.”-Madison Avenue Project. So this clearly shows us that blacks are one of the most important racial groups ad companies target, but companies aren’t jumping the gun whatsoever to employ blacks into manger or professional positions. Anyone can clearly see the sad irony in all of this.
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Mass advertisement has really changed over the past couple of years. We no longer see all white people in commercials or magazine ads and personally I think it is for the better. We are becoming a united community and not outing one specific race as being better than another. We are finally starting to accept everyone for who they are and not what they look like. Yes most ads or commercials have just one person in them, now any kind of race, the ones with different races interacting is definitely effective. I personally do not have a problem with anyone of any kind of race, so I like seeing different races interact in a setting where anyone can see it, which would be the TV or even flipping through a magazine. I mean think about it, as a kid we always are watching TV and that is where we turn to for what the “real world” is like. If mass media is advertising different races together it shows that when we go out there it is ok to befriend someone of a different race. I believe that Penn State should add more races to their brochures and pamphlets because it shows that we as a school do except anyone and if you walk our campus you do see all types of ethnic groups.
I believe that saying this is a “catch-22” scenario is definitely true. Some people think all of this is a good idea, but unfortunately you do have those people that completely disagree with what this article is saying. We cannot please everyone it is pretty impossible and I think we need to keep that in mind too. Also, if people want to learn more about a certain race they are sometimes called a racists because they might ask the question wrongly or the person might misunderstand them.
I guess I have never noticed that the statue outside of the Alumni Center is all white but truthfully I don’t know anything about the statue so I cannot say too much about it. Here we go again with center people thinking it is totally fine having only white children playing, and then on the other hand, we are going to have people complaining that they aren’t including every race and making one more important than the other. We have to be understanding of each other yes but maybe as times start to change we will add different races to the mix or even put a group of children of a different race playing in another section of campus. I personally do not think they were doing it to make anyone mad or to make certain faces feel left out but of course that is how it turns out to be.
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Race is a big issue when it comes to public advertising. As a Visual Journalist, I take in to consideration my audience. I need to know who I’m writing to and whom I may offend while writing it. Commercial advertisements now have to think the same way. If they want a certain group of people to buy their product, they will focus on a certain type of person. If they want to sell their product to everyone then they’ll want to include all kinds of people, meaning race, color and social group. This isn’t a bad thing to consider, it’s good to be considerate of other people’s thoughts and opinions, but let’s face it, not all people can be pleased, not everyone will be happy. Someone will always find something wrong with the ad. It’s a positive move in the marketing and entertainment groups and industries. It’s grown definitely from being a white run industry to including everyone; male, female, black, white…etc. The problem with this is if you don’t ever include a certain race or make an ad multicultural, people will judge those commercials or advertisements and immediately claim you as a bunch of racist social asses. For those who don’t even think to consider who they put in their ad’s, not because they’re racist, just because they truly didn’t think about it, they take a blame for not trying to reach out to other ethnic groups. In the future this can be such a positive change and it’s already taking place. People shouldn’t be afraid though to put who they want in their advertisements or care what people think. Watch a commercial break and see what the ad is trying to sell and who they include in their ad’s. From a Hispanic point of view I feel like I’m a very big minority on the racial chain. Black who are supposedly the minorities, are always mentioned or put into advertisements. Whereas Hispanics are not so much. Coming from Miami where everyone speaks Spanish and everything is written in both English and Spanish, if ever English, then moving to Penn State where no one speaks Spanish and if they do, they use a heavily thick white person accent. I rarely see advertisements here with Hispanic people, unless I’m watching the Spanish channel. I’m personally not insulted but a lot of Hispanics could be. Some industries are too afraid to not make their advertisements multiracial because they’re afraid of being judged. So they do it in order to avoid conflict. They don’t want to be blamed of being racist, or getting sued for it. The children in the future will be more accepting of races in the future because children learn from what they see on TV. and they won’t know the difference because they grew up with those morals.
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Ads are everywhere, on buses, magazines, the television, and even in bathroom stalls. Until reading this article I never really thought about how advertisements had to cover all of their ethnic and racial bases. Each commercial I have seen since reading the article I have noticed the diversity. I would have never thought that the ad for the Holiday Inn Express including the spark of an interracial relationship would have been a big deal. I actually never thought of that ad in those terms at all. I can’t imagine being in charge of advertisements and determining who should be in an ad or commercial. Many ads and commercials may be used to target specific ethnic groups by using people of that specific race. As it has been stated in class, people feel most comfortable around people who look and act like themselves. When ads are represented by a specific ethnic group it can be used to target people that fall into that group. In a unbiased world people would not even know the difference of who was in the ad, and just judge it for the quality and concept of the ad itself. Currently that is not the case and you cannot possibly make everyone happy. Therefore, people will have this debate over and over of whether or not to have an Asian student talking to a Indian teacher in a multiracial classroom for an add for back to school clothes. Or wait, should the student be black or maybe white? It is such a silly concept to actually think that people have to do this in order to have successful marketing for their product.
The article also makes the point that when students were presented with an ad depicting a white woman and a black man they thought nothing of it. They were then asked to take the same ad to their parents to get their opinion, who may not be ready to talk about interracial relationships. I grew up in a rural white neighborhood and in my entire high school there was one black boy and one Korean boy. That’s all we had as far as “cultural diversity”. Many people in my town including some of my relatives would have negative thoughts about the ad. In previous generations it was not uncommon to still have uncomfortable feelings about interracial relationships. Today’s society is much different and more accepting than previous generations. Like the article said eventually we will be able to have ads that are directed to people that like golf, or wear glasses, or even like going to certain resorts instead of always having ads geared to people that are of a certain race or ethnic group.
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Advertising is a form of communication used to help people sell products and services. Since America is a multicultural country, advertisement are made to convince more people to buy their product, people who are not just white. When I see advertisement I believe if I am interested in it, it would rather be a thing I wanted to buy which can make my life better or a kind of service that can make my life easier. And the person who shows you the product or the service they are enjoyed in would you rather choose the product if the person who shows it is in your race? So if the advertisement shows more races more people are willing to buy the product. But think it in another way if I see people who are in different races thinking the same products and services are good more often, it would be true that i will think less of race and maybe the world isn't so racial anymore.
When I was trying to decide which college I wanted to be in, I did not have the chance to fly across the Pacific Ocean just to pick my school. Instead all I got is the brochure colleges mailed to me and the information I could find on the internet. I did not feel cynical when I first saw the multicultural photo because I felt I was included But thinking If I was in my country and seeing brochure that had multicultural photo I would definitely felt cynical this is not about racialism but about the fact. Penn State did not have that many race most of the students here are white instead. And I did felt how reality is different when I came here, it’s not just about how I felt who I wanted to be with it is the circumstance that lead me to who I could be with. I did not want to seal myself up to other races but it seems like it is hard to be a close friend with people who is in another race. Maybe it is because of our culture and how we think different about things or maybe it is just this ridge that we could not drive off, saying this I kind of missed the year I stayed in America when I was little. I went to an elementary school in America when I was around nine, I did not felt any racial issue then I was talking to any person that I wanted to be friends with. Is it because I was little and I did not realize or is it that we learned racialism when we grow up.
Still I think it is a big movement that people are trying to represent people of different races in things such as college brochures and advertisements but there is definitely a lot to overcome.
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After having read this article and then having read your views on the article I completely agree with this “catch 22” idea. Leaving a race out of an advertisement can be considered racist. Although going the extra mile to be sure to include others of another race can also be considered racist. The fact is many people in society know that a mixed race commercial or add was made to appeal to more than just one race and thus increase the sale of a product. I believe that mixing races in a commercial has selfish undertone and that producers and directors of commercials are not thinking that this is what society should be like but how adding races will add appeal to a product and increases in business aspects. However the truth is we had no idea what went on the mind in the casting director of a commercial or your favorite television show because no one would come out and say it without appearing racist or selfish.
In a world that believes they have taken strides away from racism, the color or race of a person should really have no impact at all on our like or dislike of a product. If we all claim to not be racist then no offense should be taken to an all black, all white, or all brown commercial. And when commercials and television shows do cast all one race they are often stereotyped. Some can consider the stereotypes as racist but others even of their race may consider it realistic portrayal of a race. However, it doesn’t work that way. In commercial land dinner tables are set for each race to attend and basketball games have players from all walks of life.
Unfortunately, a large population of people does not sit down to biracial dinners or at least where I come from. However, I do not believe it always necessarily has to do with what is racist and what is not. Sometimes it just has to do with what interests you, where you come from geographically as well as how you were raised.
For example, My Jewish family sits down to many dinners with many of our other Jewish friends. Not because they refuse to sit down to meals with other races, they have many friends of other races as well, but because having attended pre-school at my temple and having gone to Hebrew school and to temple on the holidays with the same people for over 20 years.
I guess what I am trying to say is that racism and the fights against it may not fully be won for a very long time because of the double standard and the catch 22. And the day when people don’t think about the color of someone in a commercial or who uses what products will come but unfortunately not today.
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In today’s America, being culturally diverse is one thing that we can be proud of. We have people immigrating to the U.S. on a daily basis and that is leading us towards a new era of relations between people of various cultures. Now we see this trend moving toward mass media. You see it in commercials, TV shows, movies, etc. It is literally everywhere. If you were to walk around Times Square in New York you are bound to find at least twenty advertisements with two different races included in it. The movement toward having different races in advertisements has recently made people think why this is happening and if it’s happening because of the way the U.S. handles its race relations or if it’s the mass media giants just taking over. In my opinion, equality is what is driving all of these ads with different races in them. The idea of equality and making that same idea work in main stream media would be a great step toward creating a better, non-racist country. In the MSNBC article, it states that critics question whether or not this is a good thing because of the large economic and social differences between whites, blacks, and Latinos. The article also states that the people in charge of making these ads are mostly white, with non-whites being few and far between in the decision making process. Those two ideas should not dampen our hopes for better social relations between whites, blacks, and Latinos. Just because our lives are different when it comes to money or social standing it should not stay away from the fact that everyone on this Earth is human and should have an equal chance, no matter what the situation is.
The article brings about numerical facts to make a valid point. Though whites still have considerably more buying power, blacks, Latinos, and Asians are all on the rise when it comes to their own buying power. That is probably one of the main reasons why we are seeing so many multicultural ads. I’m sure that the marketing agencies out there already know of the statistics depicted in the article and they’re probably figuring that if non-whites buying power is on the rise, then those people will obviously use whatever product they are marketing. It just makes sense to have different kinds of people in any sort of ad. Aside from being culturally correct, in terms of actual business, it is a great decision.
Each person in this country is connected to a person of a different race in some way or another. Having ads that have different races in them is just another way that the U.S. is evolving. You would be very hard pressed to find another country that is as diverse as the U.S. and is doing so much to show how diverse it is and how much a country can evolve to a better state.
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Last spring my friend, Sarah, and I were recruited in the HUB by a scout for the Penn State advertising offices. I am biracial and all my life I have managed to stump many with my hard to categorize looks. As an infant, next to my pasty white mother, I was often thought of as her adopted Korean baby. And as a teenager I was often mistaken as a Hispanic housekeeper cleaning my Asian father’s home. As I grew older, so did the number nationalities I was mistaken for. My friend who I was with at the hub, similarly, is of mixed race, and she, like a chameleon, can look black, Indian, or middle eastern. They ended up calling me, and not her for a photo shoot. When I arrived on set I knew exactly why she was not asked to participate in the advertisement. Before me stood an all American blonde hair blue eyed boy, and to match him a blonde hair blue eyed girl. Next to them were a slightly ghetto-fied black guy and his counterpart, a black girl. Lastly, a very Jewishy brunette and a Latina, that could have also been from the Middle East, stood before me. They had already found a “Sarah”. That role had been filled. I, on the other hand, had been called back because I would be the token- Asian chick. The Penn State advertising staff had successfully found a spread of people to portray the perception that Penn State is a multicultural, multiracial, campus. (Although, personally, I don’t think is entirely true.)
The scenario we were placed in, the seven of us joyfully eating in the commons, (of course naturally) was supposed to relay to the audience that this is what a Penn State campus is like – a myriad of cultures and people meshing and blending together. Meanwhile behind us, a round table of Koreans rowdily yelled in Korean, next to a table of blonde sorority girls all wearing a variation of the same thing, adjacent to a table of big, black, athletes.
When looking at pictures, like the one I was participating in, in college brochures and websites I cannot help but feel two polar opposite feelings. While the diversity entices me to the product, there is also an instant instinctive feeling that this picture perfect shot was deliberately created – A lie to lure the potential client in. Now, here I was in the midst of aiding this lie.
We spent centuries fighting, putting our sweat and tears to gain equal rights and for peace between races. Now, the majority of the US is very gung-ho about being multicultural. We can find this to be true especially in the media today. Seeing an all black advertisement or an all white advertisement would make me feel uncomfortable; conversely seeing an advertisement that just happened to include all races interacting makes me scoff and assume this “candid” is fake. And I’m sure I’m not alone. It just goes to show people are never satisfied with what we have, and we always want something more or something different.
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I completely agree that race in advertisements is a “catch-22” situation. Either way, you are going to get judged. If there are only white people in an advertisement, people may get offended. But if there are 3 white people and 3 black people, people may wonder why the advertiser did that and may not like it. Some advertisers do it to be politically correct. But the question is, are there actually being politically correct? Sam mentions the brochure from Penn State and I know exactly what he means. If I saw that brochure, I would too think that the person who took the photograph purposely brought together five different culture groups so that people looking at it would not be offended if their race was left out. However, if the brochure featured 5 people from the same race, I would wonder who is this picture targeted to, and wonder why other races were not included. It is basically a no win situation.
I often find myself watching commercials on TV or looking at advertisements, and looking to see what race the people are. I wish I could explain the exact reason that I do this, but I think a part of me really finds it interesting to see if companies feel the need to include both white and black people, and white and Asian people, in the same advertisement. There are plenty of advertisements with only white people, but then I find myself looking to see if any of their other advertisements feature a person of color. I wonder if ad agencies or companies in house advertising executives sit around at a meeting and say “well, make sure you get a black person in there too because we do not want to offend anyone by leaving anyone out”. And if they do not think like that, then I am very curious to know why so many advertisements have both black and white people in them. Maybe advertisers truly think that our country is on the verge of accepting black and white people together.
The mass media and advertising play a big role in how we view people of different racial and culture groups. If images are constantly shown of people of different races together, then some people’s opinions on different races may change. The media and advertising have a profound effect on people. It can alter the opinions of many people, so I also believe it can alter the opinions on race.
Overall, I do think it is important for advertisers to include people of different races in their advertisements. Although it may appear cynical, it is a good idea for them to appeal to a large audience. More races equal more of an audience, and ultimately that is the advertiser’s goal.
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Being genuine in advertising is about as easy as going through life with the name Jack Mehoff. The bottom line of most advertising, is that it is supposed to generate money for whatever company or organization is behind it. Or, if it’s not out for money, the party is trying to portray a certain image or idea that they want you to take away with you. So, naturally, to make the most money, parties will cater to the needs of their client base and do whatever it takes to do so, even if that means horribly misrepresenting something or bending the truth. An organization wishing to impact your opinions or influence you in some way, will do whatever it takes to leave their desired mark. For instance, Clearasil wants girls of all ages, all skin types, to buy their product. So, being the savvy advertisers that they are, they make a commercial where an Asian chick is having a sleepover with a white girl, and though we all know birds of a feather flock together, it would be 1. Easier and cheaper to produce ONE ad instead of TWO ads (one with white girls, one with Asians) and 2. More politically correct, and therefore more appealing on some unknown level, to a consumer. And yes, that level may be unknown. I myself have a love/hate relationship with political correctness. On one hand, I think it’s important that we recognize the differences between, say, Indians and Native Americans, or Blacks and African Americans, but at the same time… I hate it when people get so uncomfortable about not stepping on toes that the very true sentence that could have been stated “black people have different hair than whites” suddenly becomes an awkward struggle for words… “ehm.. African Americans, um, genetically speaking are different—I MEAN they have physical differences, they’re not really different, but um typically that hair type is different from Caucasian or … um other races’ hair.” Now, a white person like myself would say the first sentence comfortably around friends, but put me up in front of a class, or in front of a teacher, or better yet, in front of a black person—and my confidence in stating what I know to be a true and uncontroversial fact suddenly wavers, and I feel the need to assert my political correctness in order to seem fair. Advertisements, for the most part, generally follow along the same thought process. But on a somewhat different note; what intrigued me about Sam’s post is the part about the pulling momentum: is the increased media portrayal multicultural harmony causing society to accept this more, or is society’s acceptance of multiculture the cause of the media shift? I suppose the two are in equilibrium, because if one side just wasn’t having it, then in true economic supply and demand fashion, the other side would falter. If a poster of a black male marrying a white woman was put up all over a conservative, bigot town in the South and was then torn down in anger… would the advertisement probably change? Yes, because as always, the customer is what the ad agencies aim to please.
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Today companies have to watch what they say and how they advertise there service or product to not target certain ethnic groups, or even seclude them, such as this commercial by e-trade. At first when these hilarious commercials came about it was just the one white baby, and thats fine, nobody questioned, hey why isn't this baby black or asian or so on. But then all of a sudden along comes new commercials and they add in a black kid too. Why do they have to do that? So they don't get complaints about why are there two white kids? No. Does it really matter?
As for Sam's comment about the Penn State brochure with 5 people on it from 5 different cultural groups. For some places thats fine and for others its kind of putting the wrong look there to make them look better, but for Penn State I think that it is okay. I think that it is okay because we actually have a well rounded group of students from all over the world and many people in each culture. The brochure actually shows the truth, that we welcome all people from all races and cultures with open arms.
Going back to the e-trade commercial it kind of pissed me off to be honest. I am not racist by all means but e-trade just tried to be politically correct and make them look better to try and target other ethnic groups when they probably already did. It just jumped right out at you and it was obvious what they were doing and it just seemed like they were trying to hard. Which kinda put me off a little bit, even though they are funny commercials.
What are we going too see next? Are the All-State Insurance commercials going to add a white guy along side Dennis Haysbert? or is the Geico gecko going to add a white or black lizard friend or even both? Yes, I understand it looks better to include all ethnic groups but sometimes it just looks like they are trying to hard to not get criticized but in return they get criticized but not trying to get criticized its kind of a lose-lose situation in that point of view.
I think that it is great that other cultures. for the most part, can come together and be friends and unite and mix. New cultures are coming about from other cultures interacting. I think it is good that we can see a black guy and a white guy on the same screen. Years ago some people might have thought that was even possible. But we are uniting in some areas of the world, and of course in some we are not, but thats how it is always going to be. Some people will never get along with others, but thats okay as long as more and more and coming together. The only thing that bothers me is when it seems like an advertisement goes out of its way to put other cultures together.
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I undoubtedly feel that multiculturalism has become the ‘hip’ thing to do. Artists often have to consciously make sure that they are including enough diversity in advertising; I don’t believe that it comes naturally to just happen to put 5 different ethnicities in one photograph. If we look at the reality of our culture, we see that most groups of friends are of a similar ethnicity. A popular study in social psychology supported that the quote ‘birds of a feather flock together’ is a metaphor for the reality that we actually live in. We tend to be friends with and marry people who are similar to us in ethnicity, level of attractiveness, religion, monetary wealth, etc.
I think that we would ideally like to be more multicultural in our lives, but we’re not. I have friends of different ethnicities, but I am definitely ashamed to say that all of the people in my immediate group of friends are white. I’m not proud of that at all, I’m just being honest. Whenever I look at most groups of friends the ethnicities are similar. However, Penn State is also very white. My white friends and I all have entirely different backgrounds; Russian, German, Irish, Hungarian, Polish, Italian. Yet, we all look white and are treated similarly by mainstream culture. Therefore we have more to identify with together.
This whole phenomena and trend of multiculturalism is a step in the right direction because I feel that we should all strive towards accepting ethnicity. American culture can be highly prejudice and stereotype ethnicities unjustly. This creates barriers and inhibits people of all ethnicities from being treated the same way, and thus having ways to identify with one another. So, while I do think that the whole ‘make everything multiculturally fueled’ is a positive trend, I don’t think that it reflects the way that our society actually functions.
We’ll never be ‘color blind.’ We’ll always see color and I think that that is okay. The problem is applying negative connotations to color. Ethnicity is a beautiful aspect of people. When you step back and look at what we have made color become, it’s really absurd. I truly believe that if on this earth, we were all the same exact color (skin, hair, and eyes), we would just find new ways to discriminate against and oppress one another. We would discriminate against people of different height, or weight, or hobby, or ANYTHING. We would find a way.
Overall, multiculturalism in advertisements (etc.) may not reflect reality, however our reality is corrupt and needs to change. It’s a shame that we are so against one another and I think that although it’s awkward to forcefully include several different ethnicities in a photograph or have affirmative action (even though that is another story), we should use this multicultural trend to become more comfortable and embrace one another.
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I found this article to be very interesting. It had me thinking a lot. I sometimes tend to have very strong opinions when it comes to race and racism, but on this one I can’t really decide where I stand. I think the big elephant in the room that no one wants to point out here is that yes advertisers all across the world are making efforts to be more politically correct and include all races in their advertisements. It is no secret to me why companies like ETRADE use both a black and white baby in their commercials. I, like Sam, always do notice in college brochures that usually the pictures consist of students of multiple races. The universities are trying to appeal to all races, so I think it is a wise move for them. All advertising companies benefit from advertising multiple races as they will not attract more customers. I think anyone in society who has a real problem with what they are doing is foolish and immature. Yes, some of these advertisements may be a little corny, but we can’t really knock on these companies for being politically correct. I think the advertising industry is doing a great thing for society by diversifying their advertisements. Through their photographs they are bringing people of different races together, one small picture at a time. I do agree that white people do face a “catch 22” here because no matter what they do they may be perceived by society as racists, and as Sam said in class that is the most offensive term you can use towards a white person. The reason I cant really decide where I stand on all this is because I don’t see why there is a real issue. I think it is a great thing for commercials to now show whites,blacks,Asians, and latino’s all getting along and smiling. What is society really complaining about? I think any person who takes offense to an Ad displaying a white and black man is the one at fault here, not the one who made the advertisement. Slavery has been over for years so I think everyone needs to move on from the whole white and black issue, but that is a story for another day. This issue here just seems somewhat foolish to me. I am just wondering what the big deal is. I do understand that no matter what these advertisers do there is going to be someone who is going to complain and they can never really please everyone, but I do think people need to realize that advertising is a big part of our society and people need to understand that they are going to try and be politically correct and all the complainers need to be put to rest.
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I think its funny. Everyone in the picture was white except him. Being the first “black” president he had to know he was going to be subject to scrutiny and ridicule along with many other things. Things like this that people take offense to really just make me wonder what the hell is going through their head. Granted I take offense when people make jokes about the Irish but Barrack Obama is a public figure. From a legal standpoint public figures are held to a higher standard in aspects such as slander and public image but maybe this crosses the line. In my opinion I find this really just comical because of all the jokes I’ve heard about black people at night and the only way you can see them is if they smile. Yes, that comment was probably racist but I don’t care, I live with a black man from Africa and a brown man from Iran, our network connection is named “United Nations”. I really don’t like the fact that people take offense to things like this because that means every white person should take offense to being called “whitey” and “cracker”. In my opinion that is accepted racism that is wrong. Holy shit the day we start talking about anti-white racism I will really give the class a piece of my mind. It isn’t fair that if a white person says the word “nigger” they are looked down upon and possibly beaten by surrounding black men that think “hey, I can kick this guys ass and really not get in trouble because then If I do I call the NAACP and those niggas got my back”. I will paraphrase comedian and television show host Joe Rogan when he was trying to explain the 3 most powerful words in the English language: “the next word being Nigger. Yeah that silenced you, even explaining the fact that it’s a word gets to people”. Granted that wasn’t his exact words verbatim but it was close. In that skit the other 2 powerful words were cunt and love. I think people can learn a lot from that specific skit in his show. I’m sure as you are reading this you might think “well that makes sense” (speaking of the 3 powerful words) and makes you wonder a lot of things. I don’t know what you are thinking but it makes me think about how a stupid word can make people angry. That is ridiculous. As I stated before I take offense to racial comments about the Irish but no single word can offend me. There are clauses and phrases that anyone could come up with and in the “right” context can be very offensive but you can’t be offended by a word you use every day like most black people do.
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It seems that in every article I have read, and every journal I have written, political correctness has come into play. Maybe that’s because political correctness runs our lives. The world is, to some extent, governed by political correctness. Everyone is so frightened to say the wrong thing and be deemed racist. Therefore, every measure is taken to make sure no one is offended. We speak, act, and make decisions airing on the side of caution and political correctness. I don’t know if this is a good thing or are we making the topic of race to touchy of a subject? So, if we are always making sure to be politically correct in our daily lives, why are we so surprised that it is happening in the media as well?
I can’t decide if this political correctness in the media is driven by our social progress or money. As said in the article, “marketers aren’t turning out multicultural ads for the good of society, they recognize there is money involved.” If an advertisement for, lets say, shoes has multiply white guys wearing the sneakers, they are missing a huge demographic of other races. If they add a few friends of another race into the ad, they are appealing to a wider range of consumers. The more consumers, the more sales and the more the sales the more the money.
Are these muliculti ads representing the society we live in? No. When you see a brochure of college with four racially different college students walking together to class, its not realistic. But can you blame the college for trying to portray such an idealistic world? At the same time, if you were to pick up a competing college’s brochure and see 4 students of the same race walking to class, you would probably find something wrong with that also. Is there anything advertisers can do to come up with a happy medium? Or will we, as society, have a problem one way or another? One thing advertisers should work on is getting away from the racial part of ads and more towards the cultural. Instead of representing Blacks, Whites, Asians, Indians and so on, can’t different subcultures be portrayed in replace? So next time I pick up a college brochure instead of seeing different races, I see different cultures being represented. A goth boy, preppy girl, punk girl, and hippie boy all walking to class together. But after thinking about this for a longer time, we still may offend other cultures that are left out and still look at the color of these people’s skin. I feel like it will always come back to race and who is being offended now.
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After reading the article, “Race becomes more central to TV advertising” and reading Professor Richard’s comments related to the article, many thoughts came to mind. The article discusses the fact that television ads these days consistently show multiple races in everyday life in an attempt to be politically correct. The article also states that ads today try to connect consumers of different races by showing them using whatever product that ad is marketing. Nevertheless, these advertisements raise the question: is the media and advertising beginning to change the way people view different races and cultural groups?
First of all, I do believe the way people look at certain races and cultures has become different than in the past and will continue to do so. However, I think that the media and advertising is only a small contributor to this. In fact, I think that the media and advertising might be changing with the times, rather than starting its own revolution in the way we look at race and different cultures. Professor Richards compares the discussion from the article about the media and advertising changing the way we view race to the Civil Rights Movement. He questions the cause of the movement and what made Americans change their views about race and culture. I believe the views of the American people changed during the Civil Rights Movement once the movement began to take shape. I believe the cause of the media to use more culturally diverse race in advertising in the opposite. The reason why the media today uses different races in advertising is because our society is becoming more liberal and more inclined to be politically correct. In other words, I think that companies are so afraid to offend a race that they purposely try to include all races in their advertisements to please all parties. I think our society has become way too fearful to make a mistake in an ad because if they do it will most likely become national news. For instance, an ad currently being discussed on the Race Relations Project webpage is about a Microsoft ad involving race that has raised debate about whether it is politically correct. The ad distributed in America shows a black man in an office setting, but the same ad was shown in Poland with the black man’s face cropped out for a white man’s face to appeal more to Polish people. That controversy relates to the ad discussed in this article because it isn’t a matter of whether the company is right or wrong. It is the fact that both ads raise debate because of a racial issue. The bottom line is that the media has become so inclined to include various races in their advertising due to their fear of offending people and to practice political correctness.
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