"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?
300 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 300 of 300The title of this blog pretty much sums it up; we are in a new world where every day multiculturalism is becoming more and more accepted. Advertising is becoming more multiracial which enforces society to be more accepting of different races. Though the ads might not always seem legitimate, they are trying to approach a new idea of acceptance. One way that this will help the world accept multiculturalism is that it will create a norm and help mixing in more groups. If we see these types of ads on a daily bases, then it will eventually become “normal” to have friends of different races, and even an interracial marriage. No one would ever be looked down upon because it is the norm, it is what society says is right. Another way that race in advertising will help our society is that it will help us to become more comfortable with different races. If we are constantly seeing ads with one race interacting with a different race, then it will encourage us to do the same and not be so skeptical of other races. Think about back in the day when television first started, the majority of people on television were white, and how do you think people of other races felt? It could have affected them so much, that it might deter them from buying the product because of their anger for discrimination in the media. So making ads more racially mixed could also help sales because they will be targeting a larger population and nobody would feel as angered as minorities used to feel when watching television. I’m a white person, and if all I saw were black people on television and never a single white person, I would definitely think the media was out to discriminate on white people and that wouldn’t make me feel good at all. Turning to political correctness in the statue at Penn State, because of the time that the statue was created, I think it was correct because in that period, the majority of the people at Penn State were white so it would seem kind of odd to add a black person in the statue. On the other hand, if there were to be another statue made today, I think it would be more correct to not only add a white person, but also add a black, Asian and Latino person. Although Penn State is predominantly white, we are at an age where it has become more diverse in the Penn State area and it would only be the right and appropriate thing to include a variety of races in their statues. All in all, I don’t think advertisings are trying to make the world think multiculturalism is a “hip” thing. I just think that because multiculturalism are becoming more accepted in society, that the media has to adapt to these changes in order for their companies to be successful and more accepting.
The media is such a powerful source of influence in the world. The images and stories we see and hear affect our relationships and our values. As stated in the article "Race Becomes More Central to TV Advertising", the media, in the past has either excluded minorities or has attached negative labels to them. This corporate decision to portray minorities this way, has affected the thinking and the mindset of the white majority towards minorities. And at the turn of the century, the media is slowly beginning to change its attitude about the messages it puts out. A new wave of advertisements are emerging that support multiculturalism. Whereas some media set boundaries as to who were the “others”, some of the newer media is all inclusive.
It’s about damn time we start seeing diversity in commercials. Some people do not realize the impact of the media. If you see a commercial with all white people, part of you might feel left out on a subconscious level if you are not white. Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and islanders may feel like media that contains only whites may not pertain to them. There is definitely a lack of interest on the subconscious level. So when we see that E-trade commercial with the white baby and a black baby, those who are black get a subconscious feeling of inclusion. And then we find ourselves saying “maybe we should start investing”. It's a marketing strategy and a good one at that. But some of these commercials and stories the media puts out are misleading, and the producers know it.
As Sam mentioned, the Penn State brochure contains a picture of five students all of different ethnic backgrounds. This photograph is there to advocate the idea that Penn State is diverse and that if you are a minority, you too can make a future for yourself at Penn State. What minority students do not know is that Penn State is 81% white according to the College Board. Minority students find out soon enough that they are one a small group of students. I was shocked to find out that Penn State only has a measly 4% black population. This is an extremely small factor compared to the white student body. So in a sense, the Penn State brochure can be misleading. Yet, the admissions staff at Penn State is doing this as a tactic to draw more minority students into a program here, thus increasing the diversity of the school at a whole. And the sad thing about it is Penn State may only be doing this to reach a quota on minority students. Or maybe the school is picking up on the multiculturalism trend because in the next few decades, whites are supposedly going to be the minority.
The adjustment that the advertising world is going through right now is nothing less than intelligent. With undoubtedly the most commercialized presidential election in history being the battle between a black man versus a white man, advertisers are smart to jump on the “multiculti” bandwagon. When in history have you ever been able to buy shirts that say our president “is my home dog” or have presidential candidates announced their candidacy on a video sharing website? It is only practical that the advertisers are taking the new culturally aware country to heart and changing their business models to reflect that.
I do agree with Sam in his idea that it seems to be a little forced. Like the advertisement that he mentions from Penn State that shows every ethnic background being represented. What total bull! Although our lovely university is trying to make our population more diverse, until there is some serious improvement, it almost seems like a lie to advertise our choice for higher education as that vast and varied. This also goes for the Pepsi commercial and the E-trade commercial. Clearly marketed to try to attract both young and older viewers with their selection of Bob Dylan and will.i.am, the new Pepsi ads are also obviously being directed to both races. As for the E-trade commercial, we can obviously see that they are reaching outside of their usual market with this advertisement. Stereotypically, stock trading is a white dominated industry. But just like Pepsi and Penn State, E-trade is joining in, and adding a black baby as the sidekick to hopefully appeal to so many others that they have over looked for so long.
But to play Devil’s Advocate, maybe we are being too harsh… but I don’t know for sure. Maybe Obama being elected has influenced our nation is such a positive way that we are ready for a more diverse advertisements. It just seems too forced, too much too soon. But that is race. There is never a correct response.
Race is such an interesting conundrum, the ultimate Catch 22. It seems as if there is never a right answer, or never the right question. If a white ask questions about another other race, they are interrogated and deemed as ignorant. If a Hispanic decides to speak their native tongue in public, they are judged as an illegal alien, or as an ungrateful, unpatriotic American refusing to speak ‘our’ language. This clear, misunderstanding is what I believe is the most significant barricade between the races. The only solution is for all races to be open and understanding because without that we can never improve. And hey, maybe that’s what the advertisers and big corporate companies are trying to do, help our country grow. Yeah, probably not…but we can dream.
When you are watching TV you never realize how diverse everything is depicted. They make it seem like groups interact with people other than the ones like themselves. We all know that is usually not the case. Usually people of different backgrounds keep to themselves and people like themselves. If this wasn’t the case then there wouldn’t be Black clubs, White parties, or an Asian basketball game. That is just the reality of America. Some people do not follow this trend but it is not common.
It is understood that these commercials, like the Pepsi commercial and the ETRADE commercial are made to target vast demographics of people, but why not keep it real? I mean it very smart for them and less expensive maybe, then a White audience directed ad or a Hispanic audience directed ad.
Are they only trying to sell the product or trying to also sell the message of diversity? When I think of this double message being displayed I most often think of the Old Navy commercials. They depict family being a white mom and brown dad and colorful children. They could just as easily make as much money if they used a all white or all brown family. This is why I believe commercials like this are saying something else.
It is not a bad thing that African American are finally included in mainstream America, it is actually a step in the right direction to unity. The ads are just a little ahead of themselves in time when it comes to what is going on outside of the TV. We still have a while to go before things will be the way they depict them to be. Although that is not how the world really is, statistics have shown an increase in the minority spending. Is this because of better advertisement? Or just because these groups now have more money to do so? I do think the world is heading to a new era and it is not even aware or ready for it. Makes me wonder will this class even exist in about fifty years because race relations are changing?
I want to end by saying I can agree that when I see brochures that show a group of colorful people that attend Penn State I also feel cynical. It makes me think who took this is a staged photo. Now we all know it is really not that diversified on this campus and those people would never be chilling outside on the Hub lawn together. I do feel this is a way to be politically correct. Say that every college campus is full of students of all different background. Remembering back when I was looking at this university in high school thinking the picture on the brochure made everyone look happy and wonderful. I never thought that the picture was untrue in racial ways too.
I completely agree that when I would see a picture with all kinds of diversity I am like “wow way to try to include everyone completely on purpose,” but if there was a picture of just one race I would feel “wow way not to include other races.” I should be thinking “wow they included all the races!” and be happy that an advertisement went out of its way to include everyone. I think it is great that companies are slowly trying to move to further the elimination of racism around us. Then why do I feel annoyed that they are just doing this on purpose—which is the point actually! I think it is important that kids especially see a wide range of people so that they grow up learning not to stare. That one article about the BBC announcer that was handicapped—it is like the same thing. If kids see this and are used to it, they will be used to it and will not be staring and people who are different when they see them.
These various images that we see every day can influence people so much on their thoughts of how they see the world. The media can really influence they way people feel about the world. Media is something that has a major influence on stereotypes. If a TV show, for example, only portrays certain people in a certain way, that is what people will think- especially those that are too young enough to make a judgment since they have not been out in the world for long enough to experience things on their own.
It is weird that we are even discussing this considering it should be obvious that people should be happy about this conscious effort people are making to include people of all races. Why is it that we still feel cynical as to why companies are doing this? It is a change for the better yet it just annoying I guess because it has not been like this the whole time! I think that it should not even be an issue yet at the same time I feel like it should. It is hard to describe I guess. People of all color should be included in things like advertisements, and everyone should be able to be proud that people are trying to make an effort. It is crazy how much an issue like color can bring a reaction that may not even have been intended by the advertisers.
I read the article about race becoming more central to tv advertisement. I am not really too sure how I felt about this article. I think that in some ways America is moving forward with this whole race relations, yet we aren’t really moving that much. Even if tv advertisement is doing this it is only a small part I think. If we look at movies and other tv shows we can all see that it is the white actors and actresses who are getting the best roles. It is mostly every single time that the black and Hispanic people are still stuck on roles like a gang member, a killer in a movie, are any other small role that they can find. It is not only for the black and brown actors that it happens too, if the actor is from the middle east, lately we can all agree that they will play the role of a terrorist or something like that. I think it is good that some steps are being made and hopefully one day we will be completely equal. I think that media plays a huge role in every day society here in the u.s. maybe when people watch tv and they see the advertisements they will slowly start to make a change and start to befriend people of other races. In order for America to get completely there people need to start and talk to different people and learn more about other cultures. We talked about this in class and I think that this needs to happen and people need to ask questions, whether it offends people or not. Even though I am a person of color and all, I wouldn’t get offended if a white person came to me with a question about my race or my culture. This does not make the white people racist in any way, and I feel as its wrong if a person of color gets offended and gets mad with the person who asks. This is the only way for people to understand each other! Please people of color, stop getting offended all the time and making others feel bad for trying to learn about you. I am sure that people of color have asked, or have questions for white people. I highly doubt that many white people would get offended if we asked them questions about their culture or their background. I really don’t have anything else to say because I think I have pretty much said I can say. I hope that sooner or later people just stop making a huge deal out of race and political correctness and we can all just get along! hahaha
I can completely understand where Sam Richards is coming from when he says that there is definitely “catch-22” when it comes to advertising and racism. Every single day you will see at the very least one commercial or one magazine or news article that felt obligated to include a multi racial look to it, because they feel obligated to look diverse and multi-cultural. Yet, many times it looks very forced and it’s completely obvious what the creators were trying to do, so you sort of find it absurd that they felt so obligated to do it. The best examples are ads and commercials for our very white school we call Penn State. Penn State is about as completely un diverse as it comes for a major university, yet each and every ad we see has every single ethnic group include to make it seem as though there is some sort of equilibrium of culture at our school. I understand why advertisers do it, it’s so they don’t leave any potential buyers of whatever product they are selling (university enrollment for example) out and feeling unwanted or like they don’t fit it. It does also kind of irk me that we have a society where we feel it necessary to always have urge to do whatever it takes to so that every single person feels wanted. Yet, just like Sam said, it’s completely understandable why they do. They just have to. If they don’t, they are deemed racist, and the last thing you want as an advertiser is to seem racist. Yet, by doing this, it perpetuates the making every one fit in problem we face in society. It sort of shows in a big way what we have been talking about in class when it comes to political correctness at the race table. Since many advertisers are white, they feel the need to do the whole diversity angle to not get the racist label, just like most white people may not be completely honest when it comes to talking about race for the exact same factor. I am white and am completely guilty of this myself. Just the other day in our discussion section I found myself making an argument for affirmative action when basically since I have known what the definition is have never supported it in my entire life. It may be a product of what this class has done to sort of broaden and advance my views about race and racial relations in America and due to that opening up has made me feel that white guilt and potential obligation to be and seem more open and intelligent at the race table. I see the exact same thing when it comes to advertisers.
This generation is a generation where people are mixing and improving the melting pot in a larger scale because we are all trying to set the line. What I mean is, when it comes to race, where do we put the line to stop talking about someone’s background and not offend them, or how should we advertise and incorporate all racial backgrounds to support our belief that race relations is setting a higher standard towards reflecting on the cause and effect issue.
Television has made all the cultural issues more open and made more people more accepting. People do not chose what to see, and people normally tend to follow what it shown on the TV. TV tends to be a stereotype in itself because what is shown to the audience is what is on their “prejudice” state of mind. What I mean to say is that what people see is what people say. People, what they see is what they accept as morally and socially acceptable because it is being projected to the entire society, which allows racial issues to be the forefront of broadcasting in this generation.
If you show a bunch of races on TV being happy and enjoying each others company, people will sometimes think of that as the producer is trying to be politically correct. And by that I mean, it is blatantly obvious by making race an issue by not making it an issue. We are embracing cultural uniqueness and taking the best of all cultures and assimilating this in to their own lives.
Barack Obama, people who voted for him started seeing him as an individual, who I believe is what everyone should assimilate to and understand that race should be secondary and personality and characteristics of a person should be primary. So basically, what the person has the ability to change is their act and people are seeing our new President in this fashion.
In conclusion, I personally have noticed that after President Barack Obama has been elected, there have been more black people in the commercial, just due to the fact that people could be more accepting towards our President. Hence, our nation has shown to be in favor of a Muslim/ Chrisitan, a white/ black celebrity which in the end reflects towards setting the line to where we should start to accept and stop stereotyping people. “It wasn't always like this. For much of the past century, "minorities were either invisible in mainstream media, or handed negative roles that generally had them in a subservient position," says Jerome Williams” – it doesn’t matter how it is, because I have always viewed it as a positive thing, however others might not care because after all it is just a commercial.
I agree that political correctness is definitely a Catch-22. In fact, “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” couldn’t describe it any better. In the United States, the media is constantly toeing the line between what is acceptable and preferred in the media, and what is inappropriate or unrealistic. The media has to advertise effectively, yet they also are aware of the incredible influence they have on society. This ultimately leads to the battle between being politically correct, and being real. So for some, seeing a commercial that purposely includes people of two different races, such as the commercial with the two babies, may make them roll their eyes and immediately make the connection that this was done on purpose. I am sure that a lot of people, and I would assume mostly people of color, would be irritated by this. They would probably assume it all came down to white guilt, and white people trying to look like they are friendly and open with all races, when sadly we are not all at that point yet. Yet, at the same time if the media did not include other races in advertisements and on television, it would be encouraging inequality. You can’t win.
I admit that when I see ads that include people from various ethnic backgrounds, I immediately make the conclusion that this was done deliberately, and I believe that nine times out of ten, it probably was. My first reaction is to be like, ‘Wow, it is kind of sad that we have to fake equality in our country through false advertising in the media.’ And I think that that is really sad. However, at the same time I have to question what is so wrong with the media trying to improve our society’s outlook on race?
What if we weren’t trying at all and we were just portraying all white people in a nice house with a white picket fence. Maybe advertisements that include people of various races are not always true to life, but we need to appreciate the fact that Americans are trying to improve race relations. It may come off obvious, and a little desperate in trying to be politically correct, but what is so wrong with trying? You have to start somewhere. As a society that is obsessed with the media and is heavily influenced by the media on a daily basis, we could use some positive reinforcement about race relations. The media portrays worse things than the interaction of various races. If we are portraying this now, and the public generally follows the media, then hopefully it can inspire some change and set a good example. That might sound really corny and somewhat naïve, but why should Americans be so completely pessimistic about race relations all of the time anyway?
I had noticed that advertisements had been changing. Those of various ethnic backgrounds were being included and at first it gave me hope. I thought . . . wow no matter how many racists have found the need to voice their opinion since Obama was elected, at least it doesn’t stop those in charge of the media from being equal. Then I read this article. And it is a little sad that this is probably happening solely for the purpose of reaching out to consumers. It isn’t about an equal respect for everyone. It isn’t about making the world a better place. It is about money, always it is about money.
But I do wonder about the horse and cart part of it all. I spend a lot of my time with kids. And kids do not care about the color of skin. It is not a thought that crosses their minds . . . ever. They LEARN racism, they LEARN bigotry, and they LEARN that the other is “different.” A lot of influence comes from parents, second to parent’s is peers, and largely equal to peers is the media. That is one of the things that made me most excited when Obama was elected. Because now children see a person of color in a position of power, and all of a sudden it might be a little different for the next generation. The next generation might not think about the color of a person’s skin when they are applying for a loan for a house or turning in an application for a job. They will often see a respected face of a person of color.
So if the media shows people of different backgrounds socializing, then kids think it is the norm, even if history shows something different. I know that we learn a lot from our history. And it is important to keep in mind when making decisions, and especially when placing judgment. But I think that some change happens whether or not people know the meaning and significance of the change. Would the media be able to change the image of socialization between our races to the extent that in a few generations people are confused by the idea of inequality? Now I know the real answer to that is no. Inequalities will always exist, especially in forms of class status. But can class inequality finally not be as obviously skewed between the races? And I also wonder if there is a way for us all to be equal, but be different. Can we value our personal culture, while being accepted by the group? I hope the answer is yes because what an awesome place it would be if we could open our minds to others, learning and valuing each as only another way of living, not as a right or wrong.
I guess I still have one worry though, or a few, that are larger still than just finding equality. Because if we ignore the history, ignore the racism, bigotry, prejudice, and mistakes, then we go on being a “great” people. We look at the media as being a helpful factor, while at the same time it still creates negative images for women and men. We look to the government for helping to make laws and programs for equality, while at the same time it destroys other countries and uses greed to run its politics. If the mistakes of history are fixed, without everyone having to know they existed, does it make those guilty of the mistakes any less responsible? I am not sure that question makes sense, or is saying what I want it to say, but I just feel that so many Americans are naïve to what their country really stands for and what it is really doing. Is finding equality without having to teach people about how severe the inequality was really going to help? It might make our next generations get along, but will it make them better, more considerate and respectful people?
I think that it is great to have ads and brochures that picture multiple races. Yes, sometimes we all know that it is forced, but is it not still to everyone's benefit to see that there are different races in our country and that these people can get along?
One of the areas that is concerning though is the perception that certain media are giving off. In our current era, a mother can go to a store and buy a white barbie doll or a black one or even an Asian one. It is good to have these choices because not everyone is barbie, and certainly not everyone is white. But, thinking about these dolls also reminds me of the video we watched in class where children often chose the black baby doll as the "bad" one. These are kids; they have not yet experienced the extent of the hardships and prejudices in the world, and yet they are making a choice as to which doll is "bad" based on skin color. This must be some type of learned behavior, whether through media or parental actions, because these children were clearly not born believing that dark skin equates to the idea of "bad."
We need to rid our media of these portrayals of prejudices, and then the multiculti advertisements will be more positive. I think that it is impossible to say that they will be beneficial to everyone though because no matter what some people will take opposition to including different races in ads. Like Sam said, there will be people with the cynical point of view thinking that this is forced and unnecessary. Then, there will be people who just do not believe people of different races should be mixing. But, overall the goal is to enrich race relations and show that this is a land full of people of different races and each one is important to our country's makeup.
I want to see advertisements that completely break down the stereotypes of American society and allow viewers to see past those things. Before Sam and Lauri mentioned that the statue at the Alumni center was only of white children, I never really noticed. I think that they pay attention closer to things like that because they work in the race relations field, but it brings up an interesting idea--should the artist have used children of different races in his or her vision? Who are we to judge that he or she needed to have those different children? I see absolutely no harm in having 4 white children, until someone decides that it is somehow racist. He or she just probably never thought about it much when designing the statue. But in our ever-growing world of race relations, should we all be thinking about these types of things and conscious of even an omission of this kind? Hopefully one day we will not have to worry either way about this. People will think about these things because they care about race relations, but they will also not need to think about them because race relations has come so far that it is a non-issue.
Just like changes with clothing styles, I do think that there are decision makers most certainly in the media that make our decisions for us. Less than 10 years ago high rise jeans were still in for girls, then WAM out of nowhere it was suddenly stylish to have everything be low rise. Now all of a sudden high rise pants and skirts are slowly creeping back into style and the mainstream. Coincidence? I think not. Designers and celebrities are on a merry-go-round of style that I am sure will continue until the end of human time.
I have to agree with Professor Richards comments about the brochures for Penn State. Obviously Penn State is NOT as racially diverse as that brochure cover would like people to believe. Although I do think Penn State has been recently making great strides with diversity, and I know that it isn’t ENTIRELY white populated, our school certainly has its minorities and majority…white. Even though I know this, I am in fact glad that Penn State chose to exemplify their students, not matter how small their population at Penn State.
I have to wonder when the Hintz Alumni Statue was made and placed there, and also what it’s significant meaning is. Is it a statue of the Hintz family? Perhaps they were white and it IS in a statue of their family. I am not sure, so I can’t make a judgment there.
I certainly have high hopes that we are on the verge of a new wave of race relations. Regardless of how others feel about President Obama being elected, I think that it is a huge LEAP forward and in the right direction. Sure there are still going to be, and are, the idiot bigots who have judgments simply based on skin color or background, but a lot of people President Obama has shown them that regardless of skin color educated people are still that, educated.
What blows my mind, and I feel is often overlooked by many racists, is the fact that the majority of these bigoted people are vastly and highly uneducated. So is that to say that no education leads to racism? Maybe not; but I do think that it is a natural thing for people to fear what they do not know. If someone lives in a sheltered community and doesn’t know any black people, but someone tells them black people are idiots, they will probably believe that person because they do not know any better. With President Obama’s visibility, that excuse will surely die out and with good reason. He is smart, classy, well-spoken and not all that dark skinned to boot, an added bonus in the minds of those that are beginning to ignore stereotypes.
first and foremost I do not own a television. That being said even I have noticed the population demographics distortion on many advertisements. It usually a white main character with a black friend. I just laugh, these advertisement firms seek to reach out to us "colored people" this way. there's nothing more broad then to reach us over the airwaves, excuse me digital signals, and throw these more diverse than actual television advertisements. Only if the advertisements were meet by the network programing (dont pay attention to UPN) in fact I believe I can count the amount of blacks on NBC on my hand that being said I haven't sat down to watch TV since the olympics (excluding the PSU vs Baylor game). I saw the super advertisements over the internet another year another batch of idiotic 30 second segment created to pry open you wallet or handbag in order to get you to buy another useless product (be easy steve, not apple). LOL The Etrade baby really speaks to me only a infant would be so inexperience and uneducated as to pitch online trading during a the worst recession in ninety years. I can understand why MC Hammer would need cash for gold. Anyway, I Advertisement is to get you to make quick decisions on a whim to buy something my money says you probably don't need (Wasteful spending got us into this mess). They just attempting to capture a newly emerging/ constantly growing market Asian, Black, and Latino Middle and upper classes. I used to say their not stupid that companies or capitalism whole propose is to find out where the money source is at capture multiply it whatever (until recently), they would not send out these advertisements unless they regard them as economically rewarding. I could care less about what these companies advertise. At the end of the day it is only business weather they gave charity, started a community program, or a fund for world poverty they only seek the business or good press from such things.
After reading this article on race and advertising I was surprised by a few things in the article. The first thing that stood out to me in the article is that to be completely honest I have not even taken note to the fact that advertisements have become so much more multiracial until the statistics and specific ads were pointed out to me. I think it is a great thing to see that society has come such a long way with advertisements incorporating more diverse groups of people. However, I do feel that TV shows have still not reached the level of these advertisements because to me TV shows do not appear to have as much diversity. When will this begin to change?
I also found it interesting that the article pointed out that some of these multiracial interactions are not “realistic” however I agree with the comment that said when advertisements are “realistic” anyway. Therefore, I think it is great to show these interactions because it shows that our country is moving in the right direction even if it is not extremely realistic. I think the reason for these interactions is so that the ads begin to relate to a broader range of individuals which is an extremely beneficial idea for society.
The one thing that showed me that our nation is still not as advanced as I would like it to be is when the article talked about the different taboos, for example the minorities courting the white woman. I think this shows that we are moving in the right track but there are still many untouchable areas that need to be broken into to really cause a change in society, but I guess the advertisers are moving in small steps. However, I wonder if advertisers stay away from these taboo topics because they don’t want it to affect the sale of their products? To be honest, I think this has a lot to do with it because the article talked about the main reason for the multiracial ads is profit so I am sure some sort of monetary issue is keeping advertisers from these more taboo issues.
I also think it is a great idea to show these multiracial interactions in advertisements because I think it will benefit the younger generations. I think it will show children how it is completely acceptable to be friends with individuals of a different race then yourself. I think this is how these ads are going to have an impact on future generations because the newer generations are going to learn new socially acceptable practices through the very influential media.
However, like Sam said there are bound to be bumps in the road, but I don’t think these bumps will be big enough to affect the great strides that these advertisements will make on society as a whole.
Advertisements are made generally to target a certain group of people be it university students, companies, individuals, people over the age of sixty and so on. The aim of this is to grasp the attention of the intended audience in order to make their products known to them and the rest of the world.
It has come to my attention that many Americans be it corporations, organizations, schools and so on are doing what they can to be all inclusive of members of society in order to be politically correct. But one might wonder if that is really their true feelings when they include everyone in an advertisement or they are just trying to save face but truly underneath it all, that is not really their intention. The article on MSNBC talks about the new concept of “visual diversity”. I think that, that is very important to the audiences watching these advertisements. This is because people are generally drawn to what they see and hear. If minority groups begin to see that they are being included in the advertisements which they are normally not included in, it would serve as an eye opener to them and would definitely increase the marketability of that product. The article goes on to talk about how in the past minority groups were usually in negative roles or did not play any significant roles in advertisements. Now, however, I personally think there has been a real change in the way the media go about portraying the positive side of all minorities which is exactly what America needs. I honestly believe that though it might not be very likely for one to see Asian and black teenagers shooting hoops on a basketball court, I feel that what the media is trying to teach us is that, that is how things should be. It is about time that we break these cultural barriers and learn to live with each other as species of the same kind. When schools like Penn State who may like to include people of all ethnic backgrounds on a brochure, go ahead with it, I am very content. This is because Penn State can be seen as not very diverse racially speaking and because of this they must do whatever they can to make sure that minorities feel wanted and not excluded from the school and campus life in general. Like Sam said in the article he cannot help being cynical when he sees all white students on a brochure or a mix of people from different ethnicities on a brochure. I understand his sentiments and feel that sometimes people may try too hard to make it known that they are trying to be political correct. But on the other hand, I feel it is much need to not be too cynical and see the brighter side of such advertising.
It’s funny how much the media influences the world today. They tell us what to wear, what to eat, what to do and buy. People actually follow these everyday media “rules”. Even when you think that your not but you really are. The media shows who is using what products, and make you think that your culture likes it, so you should too. In almost every ad that has a group of people, there is always one black person. I saw this Olive Garden commercial, where a group of friends were eating at the table and a black guy was there. I have nothing against people of different races hanging together, but it was like seven or eight of then at the table and he was the only black person. I just thought it was odd. I see many commercials like this. If it were more than one black person there then maybe I wouldn’t feel this way. I don’t think I would really mind if there were no black people there. I have seen other Olive Garden commercials with a big Italian family sitting at the table without any blacks. I didn’t really feel any way about that because it is an Italian restaurant with an Italian family, a black person just wouldn’t fit. These advertisers are really funny the way they do research and find ways to advertise to certain people. Places usually get around by world of mouth from friends or family. Even if restaurants did not advertise, many if not all of their costumers would still come. I do like the fact that advertisers try to put minorities in main roles in advertising. Before, minorities would be in the back helping with the ad, or a waiter or waitress helping out the main characters in the ad. When I see a stereotypical commercial with a black person doing what a black person does, like playing basketball or drinking, it makes me mad. Like that is all we are good for. But if they had a commercial without black guys playing basketball then it would be wrong. For example, I wouldn’t expect to see an asian family cooking a soul food dinner for a black cookout. It’s just certain things that you don’t expect to see on advertisements. This advertising game is so random, like you really don’t know how people will react to your ads until they are aired. Our country is so diverse that people have their own thoughts and ideas about every subject. I just want to buy what I want to buy and get over it. Although ads really do have a big influence n what everyday people buy, sometimes there is too much thought over ads. People take them too seriously. They are just ads.
Unfortunately race is perceived in a negative way for most people, and as that may diminish over the years… I do not believe it will ever go away. Media can go both way; it can be beneficial or it can hurt the matter at hand. Sometimes the media puts a road block in the way of our progress in trying to rid racial conflicts due to certain advertisements that perceive certain racial groups in certain ways. For instance, the one we saw in class with the landlord who would only rent out to white people. Of course it was obvious that the person on the other line was white. This makes all white people look racist which is not the case. What if the person on the other line was black or Indian? Would that change the way people think? I think so. Understandably, the commercial was trying to prove discrimination and how it is wrong, but it simultaneously hurts the racial conflict by making all white people look racist. Sometime media plays off of common stereotypes that have been made, and this does not help anything. I think racially diverse commercials are good for people and of course the business because it does not exclude anybody that could possibly be customers. In this way, I believe media helps the racial conflict. Everybody watches television: whites, blacks, Indians, Mexicans… everyone. And what attracts people to this type of media is when they can find common ground between them and the tv shows. Therefore it only makes sense that the media includes all groups because not only does it help race, but it helps themselves.
On the other hand, I find it irritating that people always have to watch in order to be “politically correct.” I think it is a bunch of bullshit honestly. People should be proud of their race and who they are, and if there is a commercial that portrays only white people, people of color should not take it offensively. It is not like the director of the commercial was trying to exclude or hurt one group. Most commercials are for advertising and why would any company want to exclude potential customers? They do not want to do that. However, for things such as brochures for colleges, I think it is important to include a diverse group of races. To me, it shows that everybody has potential and that everyone is welcome. It show opportunity for everyone. And while the colleges may not be as diverse as they appear, like Penn State, putting effort into advertisements like such show that they want to expand the racial range. This is also good for the college. The more diverse, the more people feel welcome, and the more applicants the college will have which again is good for them.
This article was very interesting and it brought to life many of the underlying messages in advertising however slight they might me. It made me recall on the times when I saw the very commercials explained throughout the article. Some of the commercials made me think that they were deliberately going for political correctness and some of the others I hardly recognized the racial difference and thought they were representative of our society today. For example when I saw the Holiday Inn one it didn’t being any multicultural thoughts to mind. I simply I identified it as a funny commercial. Little did I know of the “taboo” that was being depicted. On the other hand, when I saw the Benetton ad of a white person, black person and asian person I thought that seemed forced and wasn’t an accurate depiction of what I see in our society. It almost seemed satirical.
When it comes to the Civil Rights Movement and cause and effect in general I am one to believe that views points change because the movement got underway not that American had altered views about race. Ultimately it led to cultural transformations. I think that the mass media and Hollywood play a big role in such cultural transformations. For example, I think that interracial couples in Hollywood have led to a perception that it is okay to date outside one’s race. Although I wish it didn’t take Hollywood to make this more acceptable in our society I am glad that something is getting through to other.
More relevant to the article and to Sam’s blog I also think that media decision makers are telling is that multiculturalism is “hip”. Even if what is driving their ads is simply making money I do think it is for our greater good. People need someone to pose after and someone to make it okay. I guess it’s human nature. It’s a good thing that not everyone is like this but I am confident in saying the vast majority are followers.
I don’t think it is always meant to be a big deal that people of different races are in the same ad together. I’d like to believe that there isn’t always so much thought put into it. Maybe it’s just the best actors that showed up to the auditions that day?
When it comes to the Penn State ads I had the same concerns as Sam. I mean, come on, how likely is it that a random group of friends is conveniently going to include people of all different races. I too would be annoyed if it were a picture of people of just one race, but why must it look so forced? It screams political correctness.
As a student in the College of Communications and being a film major this article really hit home. I have always believed that the mass media is a huge component in how people think and how they act. I do believe that the mass media has a played a significant role in our view of the role of different racial and cultural groups. I believe that the mass media changes our opinions subconsciously because when someone watches something and over again they begin to think that whatever they are watching is reality. I have always thought that a person can be easily influenced by what they see or hear and because television is huge way to advertise the media’s opinion we can often now find them pushing the topic of race. I think that Penn State’s advertisements are a great of example of this. They show people from a different background all in one picture, but they funny thing is Penn State is one of the least diverse campuses in the United States. The advertisement does not show what Penn State’s student body is really about. The state of Pennsylvania is primarily a state that contains mostly white middle class people, and that means that most of Penn State’s incoming classes are just that, white middle class people. However, imagine being a person of a different race looking at Penn State has a possible choice to further their education and ONLY saw white people on the poster? They would probably not really think to apply, and then that poses the question; Do we advertise the truth or do we fib a little to keep all cultures and races happy?
If you were asking my opinion I do believe we should fib a little. I think the E Trade commercial is absolutely hilarious. I think that if television only constantly showed people of one race I would start to get bored and even start to think that it was ok to only have one race. I think that showing other races on TV keeps people from being ignorant of other cultures. I believe that America will always have issues when it comes to the media but I do believe they are trying to keep every culture as happy as possible. I do believe that there will always be something on TV that will cross lines for different people but if I think they have come a long way from where they started.
When it comes down to it, advertising and race really is a “damned if you do, damned if you don't” kind of issue. I've found myself consciously noticing when I see advertising that reflects a racial stereotype, for example a Kentucky Fried Chicken advertisement featuring a black family, or an Olive Garden commercial with only white families. Those kinds of ads make me ask myself why the person who designed the ad for say Red Lobster decided not to include a Latino family. Is it because they are not targeting Latinos? Do Latinos not eat seafood? Or is it the less sinister explanation of the marketing director of Red Lobster just including a family, no matter what race they are?
Sam is right when he says that advertising and race is a catch-22. The cynical among us will always find a reason to nitpick: no racial diversity, too much racial diversity, etc. A brochure for Penn State with five students of five different races would probably make me laugh too since it is so unrealistic. Penn State is, by and large, not very racially diverse. Why not be real about it and try to represent Penn State's actual statistical racial makeup on the brochure? As of the Fall of 2008, 5.4% of Penn State students were black, 4.8% were Asian, 3.2% were Hispanic, and 0.1% were Native American. That leaves 81.8% white students. So, perhaps a more accurate representation would have ten students on the brochure, including eight whites, one black, and one Asian (sorry Hispanics and Native Americans).
Ethnic diversity in advertising certainly doesn't hurt, though. I agree with Jerome Williams, who is quoted in the article as saying:
Today, you're starting to see a juxtaposition of blacks and whites together, doing the things people do ... Now, advertisers are not in a position of pushing social justice. But to the extent that they can put whites and blacks together in situations, I think that's a good thing.
While multiracial advertising may provide fodder for the cynical, it is necessary to accept that African Americans and other minorities have more purchasing power than ever before. As for Sam's question about what has fueled multiracial ads, I feel that it is probably a mix of both the advertising industry pushing it on the public and the public beginning to become less racist and more diverse. Even though both contribute, I believe the latter is the driving force. I hate to bring up President Obama, but it's probably an easy way to make my point. We just elected a man to be the President of the United States who is at least part black. I think it's important to understand the history of the Presidency before Obama's accomplishment can be truly appreciated. Before JFK, every other president was not only white and male, but also Protestant. When Kennedy, a Catholic, was elected people got very worried that he might let the Pope run the country by proxy. During Kennedy's time, there was still segregation in the South and the Civil Rights Movement was hitting its stride. During the 2008 election, Barack Obama won the state of North Carolina. Who could have ever imagined a Southern state voting a black man into office 50 years ago? Back then, Obama wouldn't even be able to drink for the same water fountain as his opponent. To me, this proves that this country is changing in regards to race and the advertising industry is just trying to keep up.
When it comes to the media and advertising, political correctness is very crucial. In my opinion, it is better to have people question if they were trying to fit someone from every race into a picture, rather then seeing they left every race but one out. I think most people would rather see the inclusion of everyone because, although it may seem cheesy in the picture, chances are a school such as Penn State is diverse, and not just one race. However, I do agree that it is a lose lose situation and does cause people to question the photographers/medias intentions. I think when making a brochure for something such as a university it would be best to just take a picture of a classroom. That is probably the best chance of getting a diverse situation that looks natural and not forced. When it comes to movies and commercials, for some reason to me, I notice political correctiveness much less in movies, but I can not seem to figure out why. I guess it’s because you can see a whole scene in a movie, and a commercial is just ten seconds of a person. Nevertheless, it is very present in my mind when I am watching tv and turn through and see extremely diverse commercials. I just do not think that it is completely realistic yet. Some commercials, such as sports with diversity are realistic, such as ones with Tiger Woods and Andy Roddick and others all together for a deoderant commercial or something. However, I just do not believe that our society has gotten far enough to have six different ethnic groups for ten seconds all playing board games together, to be selling an accurate advertisement. But, what if it was all just a group of white kids? Then many people would believe that it was a discriminatory commercial and highly disagree with it. I completely agree when Sam says it is a lose-lose situation. No matter what someone is always going to be upset or offended. But, I do think slowly it will seem more normal and natural to have these diverse commercials, and people won’t think twice about it. I also think that although it may be forced, it is still has good intentions. The media as a whole, is one of the most influential tools used in persuading peoples minds. As long as there are these commercials, people are becoming more accepting of others, and are realizing that yes, this can be realistic and normal. And then before we realize it, these commercials will seem natural and normal. So as much as they may seemed forced, I think they are a prediction of what our future can look like.
Personally I feel that there is really far too much thought being put into some advertisements. Anything can be seen as controversial, and rarely, it seems that things actually are. It’s just that someone took something too personal, or thought about something too much. Or maybe I am just being a bit too naive. I just find it hard to believe that commercial scriptwriters, or whoever, sit around and think, “Hey, we need to make this a little more culturally diverse, let’s add a black guy or an asian woman, or whatever.”
I am very torn on the example of the picture of Penn State students for a brochure. Yes, it’s clearly staged, and they obviously looked to represent that we are “diverse”. But the thing is, this campus really is not all that diverse. Yes, there are many races on this campus, tons of people from different backgrounds; but there is no way that in a group of five students from this campus that all their races will differ, there is a clear majority of white students here. Now I am not proposing that you use all white kids for the picture because diversity is a part of this campus. But I just look at it as false advertising, so maybe the only solution is to take a larger sampling of students for the picture so you can more accurately express the “ratio”.
I can’t say that I particularly see a problem with the statue of “white” kids, because if they were any other race, I can promise you that there would be someone of another races asking “why”. I would assume that the choice was left to the artist’s discretion. And he had to pick one race. I suppose that since he’s an artist he could make a hybrid race mixing all the elements of every race so that no one would question the motives behind it, but that’s not accurate.
I am glad that we are seeing diversity in the media though; it shows strides towards more “acceptance”. I don’t totally know where I stand on all of this to be totally honest. I want to see more diversity in everything I am involved in, I don’t want to be surrounded by a thousand me’s, but I also don’t want “false advertisement”, as in, we cannot just throw diversity into situations, advertisements, shows, whatever.
In the end, I think this entire commercial issue just comes down to marketing, let’s be honest, if you see your own race or culture being represented in a commercial for a product you are going to be much more likely to buy it. So do I think it’s helping the race relations? I don’t know.
The first thought that came to my mind when I first started reading the article is that I have seen the etrade commercial before with the talking babies and that when I saw it the first time it never even occurred to me that the second baby is black. I was mostly paying attention to the funny ad that had babies talking like adults. But yet I know advertisers tweak every single detail in commercials- so I know they didn’t put the black baby in the commercial due to the lack of white infant actors that day. Does this mean I have finally personally broken the racial barrier? Hardly. But is that want the advertisers wanted? Did they want me to overlook the diversity in the ad? Or did they want me to see the black and white babies tackling etrade together. And why isn’t it the black baby that is featured in every commercial instead of the white one? It would be hard to pick apart the reasons advertisers do what they do. But it is clear that “visual diversity” is on the rise. There is a quote in the article about this rise in visual diversity being targets towards particularly young Americans. I agree with this. Perhaps every young generation is generally more liberal and tolerate than the last- but this generation- my generation- of young Americans- I would like to think will be the most progressive. But age aside, one should examine why there is such a rise. Is society influencing advertising or are advertising influencing society? Perhaps it is both. Especially with Obama being elected the first black president a shift in thinking has been taken upon America recently, or at least it seems so. I’m sure advertising used this to their advantage and wanted to cater their products and services toward the recent trend. Or perhaps- like the article seems to point out with the given statistics- they are targeting a rising market. It is true that within thirty years that minorities will be the majority in this country it would only make sense for advertising to target toward that market. Advertisers put a black, Asian, or Latino face on the commercial to make it more appealing to that particular race. Yet I’m sure they add in a white face in certain commercials to make the white viewer more comfortable or included too. As a white person seeing actors of color on the screen during a commercial would make me assume that the product or service being advertised wasn’t meant for me. I do think we are getting more progressive as more people of color are seen on TV, but of course, we still have a long way to go.
Race is probably the most difficult thing for America to talk about and deal with. No matter what you say someone doesn’t agree, or someone is offended by something you said. I am also not a fan of political correctness. I think it is very funny when you she a commercial for a new board game, and there is one white kid, an Asian girl, a black kid, and maybe another darker skinned girl all playing the game together. I don’t care how diverse you claim your hometown is, that is not your typical game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. The article is right when it says companies need to begin to include different cultures instead of different races into commercials. Of course you can’t have a preppy private schooler, with some dirty kid who looked like he just rolled out a shack by the river, and a kid with baggy Sean John sweatpants and a sideways flat brim playing the game together either. While at first that example is a little extreme, it makes their differences just as clear as the interracial friends in the original commercial. It’s going to be difficult for companies to aim their marketing campaigns at different groups of people when different cultures can be marketed in completely opposite ways. Should advertisers begin creating different advertising campaigns for different areas of the country when their research shows one culture is prevalent somewhere and another culture is located somewhere else? Should the just make commercials that appeal to everyone? It’s a hard call to make. If the predictions are right about nonwhites being the majority by 2042, then the job of advertisers is going to be increasingly difficult. It was easy for advertisers to market solely for white America, when it was mainly white America buying things in our economy. Now that blacks, Latinos, and Asians are gaining wealth in America at an amazing rate, there needs to be more emphasis on marketing to everyone instead of just the majority, because soon there won’t be a clear majority. The companies that will prosper in the future are companies that can adapt to the changing trends in American culture. They also can’t assume that race implies culture. Our society is becoming increasingly mixed in both race and culture. It used to be just inner cities that were interested in the hip hop culture, but now that movement has spread to the suburbs and beyond. Here at Penn State University in my fraternity house (which I will admit is not very diverse), 90% of the music I here at a party is hip hop and rap. I would say a majority of the brothers in my house are kids from suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburg, and if that doesn’t show a spreading trend of traditionally black culture to new places, I don’t know what would. These are the kinds of thing advertisers will have to think about in the future, and it will be critical to their success to find a solution to the multicultural marketing difficulty.
I can see how some people may think that having advertisements that do not necessarily depict what really goes on in America is wrong. Although we are economically disproportionate, I think that having ads focus on a more multi cultural society is a good thing. Not because we can fake it until we make it, but because by having people of different ethnicities doing the same things as white people, may normalize how some people view people of color. I always thought that white people were afraid of talking to someone of a different race/ethnicity because they felt that we are so different, from another planet, have nothing in common, so they would not talk to us instead. In order words I felt that white people are afraid of the "unknown." I thought the media also emphasized this difference, for example having black people yell all the time or not like country music and just listen to rap and hip hop – Im sure that some white people may have taken this as "You see, we have nothing in common." In a way the media emphasized these stereotypes, especially for those people that have never met or interacted with someone of a different race/ethnicity. So they would rely on what they saw on television.
Having advertisements and the media, contradict these stereotypes is a good thing! Finally! We can see a black person having breakfast like anyone else and talking about the economy and not about how much bling he has. I think that slowly the more people start noticing that black people along with different ethnicities are just like white people too – in the sense that not all black people buy chains and listen to hip hop, they can also discuss the economy and have breakfast at a restaurant with fellow white friends, or even go golfing. Slowly, hopefully, people can begin seeing ethnic people as an equal and not as an "unknown." And over time viewing us as people that we have similarities with too, can develop a race conversation, interracial friendships, interracial couples, and interracial children. Prejudices may decrease, and employers, landlords, and other business will not treat people of a different race, differently. Having ads with different races community can also normalize having two people of different races being friends or even dating. The more we normalize these views, the fewer races can be a dividing barrier in the race dialogue. This can also help our future children not feel as if a black man and a white woman dating is a wrong thing, it can help our future children develop positive and equal views about other races if they do not have ethnic friends. I can understand that this may seem as if we are sweeping the bigger problem under the rug (injustices that still occur) but I honestly think that normalizing our views, can and will increase our race dialogue and the way we communicate with others of different races. Hopefully with us beginning to talk, prejudices can lessen, and economical injustices can balance themselves out.
When does a conversation step over the line?
Well here it is, this is the response I think I’ve been waiting to write all semester so here it goes, sorry if you’re offended I don’t mean to -but in reality I don’t actually care.
Everyone needs to get over themselves. Seriously, what the hell? We have become a society and a nation, so worried about what we are saying, about offending anyone or stepping over the line, that in reality our words are useless. We are obsessed with being “politically correct” and get so hooked on dancing around issues, words, and thoughts that we inhibit ourselves from speaking what we feel-from seeking answers when we are confused, from learning about others, learning from others, and in general-just learning.
Yes, I am a white female from the suburbs. So what? Why does that not allow me to ask certain questions or say certain things? I’m just a person, someone who doesn’t care what race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc. anyone else is and because I don’t care I often find myself saying things or asking questions that these people might find offensive, but in reality I’m just trying to be a more understanding and knowledgeable person. It’s not as if my questions or statements are coming from a harsh, cruel, hateful place in which I try to offend-they are coming from a place of curiosity.
And while, yes I understand there ARE some people that want to hurt and offend and their statements are belittling and cruel-I think that most anyone would be able to spot them out in a conversation and THOSE are the times that it is understandable be upset-but that doesn’t happen that often, so why punish the rest of us?
It seems to me that we as a people have a little problem with victimization- we like to play the victim of some evil and we like to complain about the inequality around us-how people are so ignorant of their own situations and how offended they are that someone would say they have it worse. But if we are all too busy dancing around these issues, too worried about offending and saying the “wrong” thing we can’t talk to each other. We can’t converse the issues surrounding everyone, see their own point of view and express our own views at the same time. Without these conversations and thoughts to be explored, we have become a stagnating society- a society in which we are too scared to offend in order to move forward. SPEAK UP. Say what you want to say, if it comes out wrong-explain yourself better, if it comes out wrong-who cares, if it comes out wrong, it’s still coming out into the world. Take a chance and hear your voice.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one that thinks about the pictures of multicultural brochures that is either all different races, or is of all white persons with one black person. I’m not saying that I’m a racist when I see things like that, but I think about what went on behind the scenes when they shot the picture, or what those people in the picture felt about what was going on, I’m sure it didn’t go unnoticed. It really is a catch-22; the topic of race seems to be one that will never go away, no matter how hard we try. We see pictures like this and we wonder, well I wonder at least what would have happened if it were all white people on the cover, or all black people, or all Asians. It’s not a point of being racist, but it’s more so an attempt to make a connection with a wider audience, but it will almost always be a point of interest to someone in society.
I really do believe that there is a connection between our view of cultural norms and what the national media portrays on TV and in movies. How can it not? We watch (as a society) so much television each day; we see commercials that portray different types of people in particular way. Wither it be commercials from E-trade or brochures here at Penn State, everything can be influenced by what we see. I look back to a video I have watched in one of my law and society class, the video from the 50s called “Boys Beware”. It alerts young boys who may get picked up by the ‘horrible gay stranger’ while out playing with their friends. It talks about how a person who is gay has a disease and needs medical attention and that you should try to stay as far away from them as possible. This type of media that was shown in schools helped us form a feeling towards gay people that has segregated them from our society still to this day.
I am glad that there are an increasing number of minorities in the media today in the United States. We are growing as a society and need to recognize that to grow, we have to become united, no matter what race or religion we are. Maybe with the media changing their views on race, maybe we as a nation will change our own view points and hopefully begin to see people as colorless. Where thoughts about what exactly went on during the photo shoot of a brochure to have one person from a different race included. Where we see everyone as the same, and not pick them apart by their color.
To be honest, I am glad that television shows, commercials, and movies are purposely adding an element of diversity in their programming. Whether it be intentional or not, the question is not really a big deal to me. The media has the power to influence millions of people and subconsciously and consciously alter the way a person thinks. If we are constantly bombarded with all this diversity on television and film, than our minds are likely to be more open to cultural diversity. There are people in this country who do not think for themselves so they turn to television for the answers. If every media news outlet is showing diversity in it’s programming, then that in turn it is going to affect the way one thinks of other races. Initially, I think that the change in media diversity is because of the way that Americans have had a changed attitude in race relations. Whether it be the Civil Rights movement or not, the attitudes of race relations have definitely changed from 50 years ago. It is said that my generation (the millennials) is the generation that is the most open to other races. I believe this is true because of the way the media affected us growing up. Our generation from an early age was constantly bombarded with movies and TV shows that showed groups of diverse people. I think that the early exposure to diversity through the media helped our generation become more acceptable of other cultures and races - as opposed to our grandparents who were not exposed to a diverse media growing up. I also think that diversity in the media is put out there on purpose. Major television stations, want to appease everybody and play right in to political correctness. As attitudes towards race relations change, television stations and movies have an increasingly difficult role making sure that every culture and minority is represented. Television stations also want to be considered hip. As much as I dislike channels like MTV and VH1, I respect that fact that they are willing to play any type of music, regardless of who is performing it. I sincerely think that these channels are the most influential when it comes to altering perceptions of other races for young people. Whether we think about it or not, the media can play a giant role in the way we develop of way of thought. My overall point it that people react to what they see on television – especially at an early age. In terms of race relations, my theory is that television and film have a far deeper impact on a person’s way of thinking than we give it credit for and it will continue to do so in the future.
I thought the race and advertising article was very interesting and brought up a lot of points that I’ve never even thought about. I think the whole multi-racial and multi-cultural advertising is perceived differently depending on the source of advertising. For instance the example given in the blog about the brochure for Penn State is a type of ad that I would think is trying a bit too hard if I saw it had all different races on it. Commercials however, I don’t think much about in terms of multi-racialism and political correctness. I’m not sure if that’s just me or that’s the case with most people but I feel as though commercials depict every day things so when I see 4 men around a table eating and socializing, I just think that’s something that could very well be happening at that very moment. I feel like those brochures and stuff are just so planned out and so posed because it’s just a single picture. I think we are moving in the right direction with having multi-racial ads on the television. I definitely agree with Sam that it seems kind of like a lose lose situation when it comes to political correctness. If you don’t do it, you are seen as racist, but if you do, you are seen as trying too hard to be inclusive and just plain old cynical. Although it is somewhat of a “catch 22”, I think the latter of the two is the right route to take in our society today. I think the more we begin to see ads that are multi-racial, the less “abnormal” it will be. I think multi-racial commercials revolving around love or families is something that is just beginning but hopefully it is something our country will begin to accept because obviously there are countless amounts of multi-racial couples and families. In the article it talks about children being asked to show their grandparents Valentines Day cards with multi-racial couples on it. I can relate to these children because I think my grandparents would be a little taken aback too but that doesn’t mean the generations after them have not made progress because we have. Soon most all of the generations alive in the country will have been grown up in a time where all races were equal. In the book we are reading for class, “Making Peace Between Our Colors”, it talks about political correctness and whether or not it’s helping or hurting. I think that in certain situations it’s appropriate, like ads on television. However, if you are trying to have a race relations talk with a group of people like Laurie was, it is best to speak your true feelings and leave out the “politeness” because then people just are sugarcoating their thoughts. Like she said so many times in her book, if we want to make peace in this world, we all must be ourselves.
well i feel the same way about certain articles or moivies and television shows. When i see a black person there i become synical and say oh thats just the toplken black guy they had to put on there. However when i dont see someone of color on something i also get offened. I somethimes think about this and say oh theres no pleasing me or my people . And i cant help but to think that, thats true. I feel that no matter how "equal we get or how accepting of others, people of color will always want more. Some part of me says that this is a ightful thought, but another part of me is saying ,enough is enough . When do we stop fighting this never ending fight. While race relations is getting better in America, and problems arent nearly as bad as they used to be in my mothers generation, I cant help but wonder and doubt, IS this problem ever going to get fix. Will political coprrectness become more popular and vocal , and treue feelings become more privat. Are we ever gonna feel like that person who is totally different then us , is just as equal. That person who income barely surpases my m,ean income, that person who can barely speak english and hasnt quite mastered the english language. That person who was born with an incurable mental disease.Yes we are getting better but will we ever beable to frolic in the same green field of daises like our arabic bretheren. I dont know and i must say iam very sceptacle. They say a thief thinks everyone is tring to steasl from them. So could it be that i see no hope for the futre because i see no hope in me. Probably while iam far from your black panther activist, I know that from time to time i think soime very politically incorrect thoughts about ALL(even my own) races and around the right people i say them too.L:ike i said iam not raceist and iam very understanding( i actually pride myself on that commodity) however i cant help the way i think. wich is how i feel about others ,they cant help the way they think either. So why do we care so much? I dont know. The more i talk about race relations and its problems the less i see a quick fix solution. Change has come . Its definatly not as bad as it used to be but its also not perfect and i dont know if i can say that it ever will be. Maybe i just wrote this blog response on a bad day. Becasue my sttitude seems to shift with the seasons . However iam glad that i can be in class where people of all races want to come together and disscuss race relations and its problems throughout the world.
I am going to take on the response to this week’s blog from the perspective of the Public Relations student that I am. Throughout my studies at Penn State I have learned that when something needs to be sold, the most successful products have reached the most amounts of people. Whether the product is tangible and can be sold in stores, or it is a concept that is being brought to an audience through a public service announcement, its success depends on how large the audience is.
The reason I bring this up is that I think media today goes hand in hand with political correctness. The media needs to include all ethnicities in ads and television spots to not only appeal to people of all shapes and colors but ultimately save their bums from leaving people out and getting bombarded with complaints from outspoken advocacy groups.
Another important thing to note is that when campaigns are created, they are done specifically and methodically. If a company wants to sell Matzah, they will create an ad that appeals specifically to Jews and put it in a Jewish publication. Or if a company is trying to sell a line of tire rims, they will target black men and put them in a magazine that appeals to the African American community. There are certain things however, that when being sold, it is important to reach out to everyone. Take Penn State for example. It needs to sell itself as an academic institution and needs students to keep running. It needs ALL students and if they create an ad that leaves people out, they are alienating some of their “customers”.
I also wanted to note that I agree with Sam’s idea that you’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t. As with many things in life, there are always going to be people who are unhappy or do not agree. Advertising campaigns reach innumerable amounts of people and so it is impossible to make campaigns directly relatable to everyone. You’re damned if you do, and you are certainly damned if you don’t.
Of course advertising has changed to include all of the other ethnic backgrounds. We live in a more global economy than we did not too long ago, so it would be in the marketer’s best interesting to market to their target market. They need people to associate things with their brand for them to succeed. The more things that people associate with their brand then the more market share they will probably have. Multi-cultural is the way of the future. Otherwise, they will lose business, or the company would be labeled an only “white” or only “black” company and that would hurt sales. One would be foolish not to follow the trend and not incorporate all races into advertising. I think that this also gives a good image to the company. To say that the company is open to everyone, and is not “racist” is a very powerful thing. There is so much power in the world “racist” that I would think it could doom a public company with that image.
Sure, the old advertising ways probably had different advertisements for different groups of people of their target audience such as advertising based on income, background, among other things but maybe the race card is finally being thrown down together. It is definitely cheaper to create one advertisement rather than making two, or three. Besides, what is really happening? A world that is used to seeing things only advertised to one ethnicity finally see’s a change. It is just a change, sure you are damned if you don’t, but I do not think that you will be damned if you do.
I think that this shift is a good idea. TV will be growing the new generation to become more ethnically conscious. Our whole lives are centered on the TV, internet, and advertising. Advertising makes the world go round, and informs the public as to what is available in the world. This is probably a very important and pressing move for the global economy to walk towards a multi-ethnic world. I remember people used to say that the television has turned people into couch potato’s and hypnotized people into thinking what they want them to think. Not that I am saying that this is a sort of trick, but I believe that if we see it all the time then there would be more acceptance rather than being just holed up in a little world, and rejecting all that isn’t you.
The world has chosen yet again what is good, and what is bad, or what is wrong and what is right. It seems like a natural occurrence to me. Just like gay marriage, they had to go through their criticism first and then slowly, but surely, they will be accepted parts of society world-wide. I think that the tables have just turned, and good for them.
Of course advertising has changed to include all of the other ethnic backgrounds. We live in a more global economy than we did not too long ago, so it would be in the marketer’s best interesting to market to their target market. They need people to associate things with their brand for them to succeed. The more things that people associate with their brand then the more market share they will probably have. Multi-cultural is the way of the future. Otherwise, they will lose business, or the company would be labeled an only “white” or only “black” company and that would hurt sales. One would be foolish not to follow the trend and not incorporate all races into advertising. I think that this also gives a good image to the company. To say that the company is open to everyone, and is not “racist” is a very powerful thing. There is so much power in the world “racist” that I would think it could doom a public company with that image.
Sure, the old advertising ways probably had different advertisements for different groups of people of their target audience such as advertising based on income, background, among other things but maybe the race card is finally being thrown down together. It is definitely cheaper to create one advertisement rather than making two, or three. Besides, what is really happening? A world that is used to seeing things only advertised to one ethnicity finally see’s a change. It is just a change, sure you are damned if you don’t, but I do not think that you will be damned if you do.
I think that this shift is a good idea. TV will be growing the new generation to become more ethnically conscious. Our whole lives are centered on the TV, internet, and advertising. Advertising makes the world go round, and informs the public as to what is available in the world. This is probably a very important and pressing move for the global economy to walk towards a multi-ethnic world. I remember people used to say that the television has turned people into couch potato’s and hypnotized people into thinking what they want them to think. Not that I am saying that this is a sort of trick, but I believe that if we see it all the time then there would be more acceptance rather than being just holed up in a little world, and rejecting all that isn’t you.
The world has chosen yet again what is good, and what is bad, or what is wrong and what is right. It seems like a natural occurrence to me. Just like gay marriage, they had to go through their criticism first and then slowly, but surely, they will be accepted parts of society world-wide. I think that the tables have just turned, and good for them.
As much as sometimes commercials seem to force multiculturalism upon us I do not think it is necessarily wrong. Of course when you are aware that race relations go much deeper than just putting a white person next to a black person, it might be frustrating. But what else can we do to render society more egalitarian. Most often the reason why people do not agree with people of different races or with things is general is because they do not know much about it. Some old white lady might fid it uncomfortable to see her granddaughter or son with a black counterpart because she has never seen that before, and she grew up thinking that racial differences were clearly defined. And why she thought in such a way might have had very little to do with her true feelings about the subject, and much more to do with the way society and the people around her portrayed ‘normalcy’. Therefore as much as the advertising industry claim to race equality might seem like another attempt at ‘political correctness’, which I believe does little to instigate communication, it is nevertheless necessary. We need to start somewhere and we cannot directly challenge race inequality by starting up a conversation and changing the views of people who have grown up and have been brainwashed to think a certain way. There is no way to bring about a change if the system has been in place for so long, change is often regarded by those satisfied by the status quo as dangerous and uncertain. This is why the path to race equality has to be more subtle. New concepts of justice have to be integrated in people’s mind gradually so as to engender a sort of quiet revolution, which would have a higher chance of working.
The civil rights movement was extremely successful in achieving equal rights but the question remains one of ‘us’ and ‘them’. We need to stop thinking in those terms, and in order to do so we need to show people normalcy with multiculturalism. People are constantly watching TV, therefore as much as it might be forced, seeing something everyday will make it automatic for you to relate that image to real life.
If Penn state did not have brochures with different kids of different races it would remain a predominantly white school. The idea is not to put two black kids and a white one to prove something, but rather to show that there are in facts different people in the school. Hopefully one day people will stop talking about it, and just see it as normal. Hopefully a person’s skin color will be as important and we will all see people for who they are and not for what they look like.
As an art history and media studies double major, I’m fully aware of the fact that a picture is worth a 1000 words. Americans rely on visual stimuli so much we say things like we “saw” rather than heard a really amazing band over the weekend. This makes advertising and careers in photography quiet challenging. One of the questions they face is if or how they should portray certain ethnicities. Should a photographer depict more than one ethnicity on a brochure in an attempt to represent diversity even when it might require more effort? I don’t think twice about a brochure featuring all white students (maybe this illustrates my on prejudices or position in the racial identity stages—the pre-encounter stage), but I’m often bothered by a brochure featuring all white students and then one black student because I often feel this was a pathetic attempt at capturing diversity. This goes beyond a brochure for a University because often on television you see this done. Teen movies always seem to have that one funny black guy, the one who’s the best friend to the main protagonist. At the same time, what if such a picture truly represents the amount of diversity the University actually has? It’s hard to know, but surely a picture of all black students would hardly represent Penn State. I’m not really sure how I feel about a picture of students of all different ethnicities, probably just that is doesn’t represent this university. Although I came from an area of no diversity, I still feel Penn State lacks diversity, and classes like Soc 119 doesn’t represent the entire student population. I don’t know why I feel like advertisers should be accurate when it comes to representing the true proportions of ethnicities of students on campus when they hardly accurately represent anything. Beautiful white people get cast and make it on the big screen, and magazine pictures could hardly be more airbrushed. Fashion ads have to be considered a work of art over reality, whether Alec Wek or Kate Moss is portrayed. One can point out that there aren’t enough latino or black top models, but one could just as easily make the comment that only certain white people who have certain features make the pages of such high fashion magazines like Vogue. Just try and find a model with brown eyes. You’ll soon find blue eyes dominate. Race is just one issue advertisers have to deal with and don’t always choose to acknowledge and address, but campaigns like Dove are trying to expose their shortcomings. It’s hard to say just when our perceptions of beauty as a nation will switch and be more open to other alternatives…or maybe we have but the media needs to catch up. It’s hard to say who’s behind or who’s influencing who.
I think that the media still does play a big part in people’s thinking about race and the message that viewers get. I believe that there are still children out in America that believes that being white is better than being black. There are still children who will still choose the white baby when asked whose prettier, or whose would you want to be more like. The media is still sending messages that white is it. Still sending messages insinuating that white is perfect and that white is right. However I do get where sam is coming from about the media and just the little things like brochures being culturally diverse. I feel like the media makes some things culturally diverse because they ginuwinally want and it is ( whatever it is) generally diverse. On the other hand I feel like the media puts things up that are culturally diverse just to be politically correct an to not be call a racist. When in fact they really don’t want anything to do with anything culturally diverse. I think that have of the time the media is being sincere about diversity and the other half of the time the media is just frauding. Frauding to protect themselves, their company’s and to have their names in the clear. People do not want to looked at as a racist even though that might be the case. I feel that if you have to lie about how you feel then maybe you should rethink your feelings or maybe you should be bold enough to share how you feel or at least don’t lie about it.
Big businesses have definitely made a strategic move by integrating of people vastly different ethnicities into their advertisement in order to increase the number of customers they get. It is, hands down, a very good business move. But do I think it is because they are trying to bridge a racial divide? Most definitely not. I had been noticing this particular trend for a long time as well and had tried to think of it is true meaning and purpose. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was all about business. Companies are going to include as many people of every ethnicity into their commercials if they believe that those people are potential customers. I’m not at all fooled into believing that it is some kind of portrayal of America moving forward in race relations. I would like to believe that most people have the same point of view. Because when I look at a commercial, I really don’t care who is in the commercial because I’m so focused on the product and what it is being used for. The only times I look at the race of the person using the product is when I think not all people can use the product. For example some shampoos work better on white people’s hair because its texture is obviously different from that of black people. Thus they need different types of hair products. So in some situations it is important to take into consideration the race of the people in your commercial.
But when it comes to products that anyone can use it is a smart idea to use people of all ethnicities. Because to be realistic, everyone can use the product so why not include them. I just think people need to just look at a commercial as a commercial that is advertising a product that can be used by everyone and stop trying to make it a race issue; because it isn’t. I wouldn’t mind if all commercials became multicultural because America is multicultural. And not just one race is going to use the product. But I can definitely see how people are cynical about such things but I think it is because they are trying to find an issue with race in everything when really it is just a business strategy. Commercials aren’t there to portray real life; it is just to let potential customers know about a product.
Lastly, I actually think it is the change in society that is driving this change in commercials than the media affecting the general population. Because as the number of multi racial people increases and as they are more accepted and integrated into society, they in turn and integrated into commercials.
So in my opinion the only time I can truly say that race relations is moving forward is when people begin to have real life personal experiences with people of different ethnicities with prejudices getting in the way. This country still has a long way to go, has definitely made significant steps in the right direction.
The whole purpose of advertisements is to appeal to a certain audience. If you watch a commercial and you do not see any one you can identify with, how likely is it that you will remember that commercial or buy the product? Companies are trying to make money and to do that you have to try and appeal to as many people as possible. When I see a commercial that has no minorities or has just minorities in it, I wonder what the thinking behind it was. Although you cannot please everyone, there will always be someone who has a problem with the advertisement or the media. I think the Penn state brochure with the people from different cultures was did intentionally to try and show that the university is diverse when in actuality it is not, far from it. So is putting those people on the brochure false advertising? How many minorities would not have come here if the brochure was of only white students? Not many, many of the minorities that would have been considering the university would be put off by the brochure if it was only of white students.
I do think that Sam was correct about race issues being a catch 22. There is no right or wrong in races because it all depends on who you are and what values you have. What is right to one person is wrong to someone else. As I said before you cannot please everyone, you just have to confident in what you believe in. The race issue is never going to be solved in my opinion but hopefully there is a happy medium somewhere.
This article really opened my eyes about how much our society has changed over the years, and how much it still needs to improve over time. Clearly, it’s a positive that Aunt Jemima no longer appears on the boxes of pancake mix and that white faces aren’t the only faces that appear on television. But like you mentioned, have far have we really come, when the second mixed races come together on the screen, or in any type of advertisement, everyone seems to notice. Its obviously when you see the image of the white baby sitting with his new black baby friend that everyone watching it notices, where as if it were two white babies together, would race have even come to anyone’s mind? I think not. That’s where it shows how much far we still have to come.
It also bothered me that companies are 100% OK with putting unrealistic situations in ads such as mix races playing basketball together, but when it comes to putting a black man or woman in a head position of a company for an ad, its extremely unlikely because its “unrealistic”. Will the ad not sell because a black man or woman is in charge, but will sell with them mixing at the grocery store or at a baseball game together? All these questions came to my mind while I was reading this article.
It also bothers me that you’re more likely to see two different race children playing together in an ad, but never have I seen two different race couples at a dinner table, or shown a couple with their biracial child at home. Why is that? Is our society not ready to handle that imagery? I think the answer to that is no, just like the example of the Valentines Day card from the article.
I do agree and believe however that many companies are mixing races in their ads to catch the attention of all races of their consumers. It’s about money and getting the product to as many users as possible in one ad alone. Ipods are not sold to one race, neither is insurance, or a computer, so why should the ad just show one culture? It’s a shame that when companies try to do that through advertising many people pick it apart as trying to push or fake something that is not reality, I am sometimes one of them. So again, agreeing with Sam, it’s a catch22. Who can you really always satisfy? No one.
I think that although it is hard to sometimes look at ads that are very unrealistic and not feel cynical, its by far better to feel cynical about the need to be inclusive of everyone than feel cynical because some race is left out.
This article really opened my eyes about how much our society has changed over the years, and how much it still needs to improve over time. Clearly, it’s a positive that Aunt Jemima no longer appears on the boxes of pancake mix and that white faces aren’t the only faces that appear on television. But like you mentioned, have far have we really come, when the second mixed races come together on the screen, or in any type of advertisement, everyone seems to notice. Its obviously when you see the image of the white baby sitting with his new black baby friend that everyone watching it notices, where as if it were two white babies together, would race have even come to anyone’s mind? I think not. That’s where it shows how much far we still have to come.
It also bothered me that companies are 100% OK with putting unrealistic situations in ads such as mix races playing basketball together, but when it comes to putting a black man or woman in a head position of a company for an ad, its extremely unlikely because its “unrealistic”. Will the ad not sell because a black man or woman is in charge, but will sell with them mixing at the grocery store or at a baseball game together? All these questions came to my mind while I was reading this article.
It also bothers me that you’re more likely to see two different race children playing together in an ad, but never have I seen two different race couples at a dinner table, or shown a couple with their biracial child at home. Why is that? Is our society not ready to handle that imagery? I think the answer to that is no, just like the example of the Valentines Day card from the article.
I do agree and believe however that many companies are mixing races in their ads to catch the attention of all races of their consumers. It’s about money and getting the product to as many users as possible in one ad alone. Ipods are not sold to one race, neither is insurance, or a computer, so why should the ad just show one culture? It’s a shame that when companies try to do that through advertising many people pick it apart as trying to push or fake something that is not reality, I am sometimes one of them. So again, agreeing with Sam, it’s a catch22. Who can you really always satisfy? No one.
I think that although it is hard to sometimes look at ads that are very unrealistic and not feel cynical, its by far better to feel cynical about the need to be inclusive of everyone than feel cynical because some race is left out.
The issue of race has been a constant dilemma in our society. We seem to be slowly heading in the right direction, but it is not a topic that will be easily solved over night. I think the problem is we try to find too many things wrong with why race problems exist, rather than ways to fix it. Maybe we are putting too much pressure on the issue, and if we let loose a little it may improve. This is not to say that it should not be addressed, because it should be. One way in which race can be positively expressed is through the media.
The advertising world is a very strong industry and can have a large impact on people. By showing multiracial groups in ads and other media it may appeal to all groups and encourage them to buy the same things and intermingle with each other. It’s important for our culture to become more multiracial so that different racial groups don’t feel as if there is a divide among them from other people.
I can definitely relate to the part in the article that discusses looking at a Penn State brochure and noticing that all the people featured on it were of a different race and being somewhat skeptical about it, yet at the same time if they were all black or all white it may seem that the other races were not properly represented. That is not something I want to do, but it seems to be a natural instinct. That natural instinct is something we need to try to avoid.
Things become more normal when you just let them happen. For example when you first learn something new or get used to a new location it can be hard to adapt at the start, but you slowly learn how to accommodate. Like the day you first learn how to ride a bike; it feels weird at first, but after awhile you don’t think about it; you just do it. I feel race can somewhat be related to that. Sure, we are all different and it is important to realize that aspect of the human race, but there is no reason that anyone should feel we can’t adapt to these differences. We should be able to look at someone, realize they may be different and move on without any questions. We shouldn’t have to look at a brochure and be skeptical to it being just white people or a multiracial group as was discussed earlier.
We should not be afraid to speak our minds. As Sam said in class, if a white person is put in a situation to discuss race they often become dismissive and just listen, because they feel their ideas will be rejected, yet other racial groups are very open to speaking their minds.
It is not a bad thing that the media is trying to incorporate different races into their advertising. Many of the races in our world came a long way to get where they are now and deserve to be treated like everyone else. Maybe by starting to become more multiracial now, generations of the future will not have to worry about the race card as much as some of us do today.
In today's media race is portrayed in certain ways for advertisement. For example a simple advertisement for a sports commercial, the media always use blacks as the Athlete in those Gatorade and under armor commercials. It shows that people always portray blacks to always be the most athletic and most fit to be playing that sport. In fact there are white people that are good as well in the sport. But why do they always use blacks? These kind of commercials always put ideas saying that blacks are always more athletic than any other race.
Another thing on the media is the portrayal of Asian people. For example in the movie Harold and Kumar. Its a movie about an Indian American and Korean American just trying to go eat white castle burgers. In the movie racism is involved when there is a part where a racist guy assumes that Indian people are automatically terrorists, and a Korean guy is a terrorist as well. When people see a person of an Asian race, the first thing that comes to mind is either, they're really smart, or Terrorist North Korea.
Another point I would like to bring up is the portrayal of Asian people not being athletic or having no rhythm and only good for studying math and science. It wasn't until recent years that a person like Yao ming has brought face to the Asian people showing that Asians can play a major professional sport in the US. Also the new show Americas Best Dance Crew, everyone would think that blacks, or Spanish crews would win that competition. In fact it has been Asians that have won for the past 3 seasons in a row. Little stereotypical advertisements in the media can change a persons thoughts about another race.
Another comment I would like to make is advertisement of clothing as well. It wasn't until recent that models on billboards started becoming people of difference races. To a teen shopping it could impact them to think, "will these clothes only look good on me if i'm white?" Some people even have the nerve to say "that only white people can pull off that look." A company that I have noticed that only uses white models on their billboards is Abercrombie and fitch and Hollister. These brands are most popular among high school kids these days. Why? because it is the latest fashion and you are no cool if you don't wear that. If you make a careful observation on the popular kids and well liked kids in high schools they are usually wearing this brand of clothing. On those billboards that advertise for Abercrombie and Hollister are mainly white people, so other races are reluctant to buy from there because they think only white people can pull off that look. Another point about this clothing store is that it wasn't until recent years they started hiring employees of color, due to complaints. They only usually hire white males and females, never any blacks or Asians, or Indians. A conclusion or reason of this act is the idea that only white people can pull off this fashion, so why would this company let another race wear their clothes and model it if they look bad right? These little acts of advertisement just show that there is still a racist America, and truly there is no getting rid of it.
Even before reading this article, I have often thought about the paradox of depicting mixed-raced groups in advertising. I can remember when I first toured PSU, looking at the many pamphlets that are thrown at you in order to persuade you to apply, I noticed that out of the, oh, seven or so students in the pamphlets, possibly three or four were non-white. These pamphlets seemed to be sending the message that PSU is not completely overrun by Caucasians. Then I took the tour. How wrong those pamphlets were. But more importantly, the pamphlets got me thinking. Why did they want to depict the students of this university as largely mixed race? Was it to attract more minority students? Or was it, perhaps, to convince the white prospective students that PSU was a place where all races, ethnicities, and creeds were welcome, a place completely devoid of prejudice of any kind, the kind of place that society tells us we want to live in.
I then began to notice this trend in many types of advertising, on billboards (mixed race couple holding smiling baby), in television (Asian and white coworkers hanging out at the water cooler), and even in radio (cool-sounding white guy conversing with his deep-voiced black friend about Budweiser). Why was it that corporate America was so gung-ho about making their products seem “race-equal”? In my opinion, these forced mixed-race advertising are simply a load of bullshit. The world is changing, and since people are not thinking in terms of race anymore, why is corporate America trying to cram race down our throats? I agree with this article when it says that the smart move would be for companies to focus on specific demographics who embody specific qualities. For example, a Nike ad about basketball does not have to be two mixed-race teams playing each other, with the asian friend dunking over the black kid to win the game. It could instead show two all-black teams in Harlem (not a racist notion if you’ve ever visited Harlem), playing their hardest. Today’s audience would respond to the hard work and drive of these athletes, not the fact that they are all black. Corporate America needs to realize that its current, equal-opportunity ads are transparent, corny, and not reflective of what America is, or wants.
Honestly I see multiculturalism in advertising as a marketing attempt. If companies want to market their product toward the Asian American population they will make sure to use an Asian looking person in their commercial. In other cases, like the Pepsi Bob Dylan commercial, companies can use race as a way to catch peoples attention and reach their emotions. They want it to work kind of like the way the movie "Remember The Titans" worked. If a company, such as Pepsi, can get people to associate its product with togetherness and inspirational feelings it expects a lot more people will buy its product.
I think part of it could also be that the minorities are only getting bigger. It makes sense that more and more races are starting to become part of the middle and upper classes. Large companies realize this and would be loosing a lot of money if they didn't market their products multiculturally.
In the end it seems to me like its all about the money for the advertisers. However, that doesn't mean that The United State's changing acceptance of diversity over the years doesn't have anything to do with it. Inspirational people over the years, like Martin Luther King Jr., have put a shift in the views of the word from people of different races toward just people. Advertisers want to capture this inspiration and use it as a way to promote their products.
So i think its more likely that multicultural advertising now occurs from the shift in society and the shift in society norms. Pepsi would have never associated their products with a black slave if it were to advertise in the 1800's. Does multiculturalism on advertisements help push efforts toward eliminating racial discrimination though?
I don't think it does, for one reason. A person might see another man or woman of different race but they don't have enough time to see that persons personality and truly see how similar this person is to themselves. So an advertisement can be a small reminder of how far we have come as a society but i think media such as television shows is way more effective.
The best example, in my opinion, is Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. As I watched the show over the years I saw personalities and people just like me. I never really saw the family on the show as a black family. So in terms of shows like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air I think the media can truly push society in the right or wrong direction. Advertisements probably don't do that much in that way though because the whole goal of the advertiser is to attach its product to previously experienced emotional states.
Having various ads in the United States promotes specific products for the target audience. Having people that are solely white or black may affect the marketing strategy for the company and specific sale deadlines may not be reached. Also a big problem is equality because white people believe that they are superior meanwhile they aren’t. Having televised commercials with either whites or blacks does not fit well in this current day and time. Especially if you are a person that has friends from different cultures or just knows people who are. When I was younger I used to live in Staten Island, NY.
Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City. Knowing that NY is the home to new immigrants, people that reside there are from all over the world. My family and I always wanted to make them feel like they were welcome and had the chance to do anything they pleased to do. However in public areas of the city many residents had this thought of mind that immigrants were not welcome and that the U.S should not be a diversified country meanwhile every human being residing in the states was new at one point within their family tree. Speaking of that, advertisements from day one should have been multicultural, making the new members on this land feel appreciated. Over the years many various things have come upon change in a good manner. The more people that represent a school for example from different nationalities such as German, English, African, Polish, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Indian provides a warmer environment for those prospective students looking at that particular university. This allows people to enjoy their life more and allows the school to attract students of different race to have diversity. Another reason why advertisements are becoming colored is so big businesses attract buyers not from one specific cultural but from all, maximizing profits.
I think have a multi-racial advertisement is a plus in many different ways that benefit more parties than one. The one thing that has always bothered me was when a white person does something little to an African American person and they say its racism or negligence. That I believe is inappropriate because when the same situation occurs nothing happens and people just go on and live their life. However through the years I believe it’s becoming less of an issue because more and more African American people are going to school and receiving a fine education just as a White or Asian person and hold positions in companies that are equally as good if not better than the average white person. It’s just as easy as looking at our president Barack Obama who is the first African American president of our country showing and persuading people that anything is possible. Everywhere a person goes, whether its school, a company, an advertisement, or even a public area, having more and more people of different races just makes the world more interesting.
As an Asian American, I, honestly, feel that the penn state brochure does not accurately portray
the cultural 'diversity' that Penn State advertises in their brochures. I feel that 4 of those 5 should
students should be white with the majority Caucasians at Penn State. I felt that Penn State was
actually culturally diverse, but I can tell you that it is not that way. Advertisement and media
specifically tries to target specific people of specific cultures and races. The things we see in the
media are blatant lies, and only there to bring out some fairy tale community.
Much of the media portray Asian Americans as either smart or goofy, or in some way able to
do some sort of martial arts because if there were not any, then how else can any other Asian
be? Harold and Kumar is a great example of how each different race is cast typed. Much of
the time, the media will enforce those stereotypes within television, movies, and music.
Yesterday, I watched a sports commercial and a majority of the commercial with Lebron James
and most of those commercials almost always had him dunking on some other player. I ask;
why is every sports commercial have a black man? Why are the black men or women always
in every sports commercial, are there not any other basketball player of another race who are
just as good as their contemporaries? Apparently not. Another issue that bothers me is with the
clothing. Many men and women wear brand names like Abercrombie and Fitch, and when you
walk in there is always a half naked white model wearing only a hat, so apparently only white
males or females only good in these kinds of clothes, so only whites can wear these kinds of
these clothing? Apparently so.
This is unhealthy for our future generations because the community should be able to move
Forward in progress, and not trapped within the same race hate garbage. I feel that those who
genuinely want to have an open mind and actually give the human race a chance, then classes
like Soc 119 have a chance. An open mind is the true key to any understanding, and sometimes it
it necessary for people to get out of their comfort zone and actually engage in these issues. Sam
does an amazing job getting us out of our comfort zone and actually approach such issues.
When I looked at the Soc 119 blog for the first just to browse through it, my attention was immediately caught by this topic. As an advertising major, I am always paying attention to the advertising world. When most people change the channel because a commercial break comes on, I watch the commercials and literally analysis them. It sounds weird but when you realize the strategic planning and research that goes into creating an ad it is easy to judge if the advertisement’s message was successfully disseminated to the consumer or target audience. It is easier to know what the advertisement was trying to accomplish or what that specific brand’s image or personality is. To most people this is probably boring but I have done content analysis research studies on advertising and it is amazing how much you learn about what went on behind the scenes so to speak. So with the topic of mutliculi ads, it is even more interesting to me because it is actually a topic I took a whole COMM class on. We actually analyzed ads that portrayed different ethnic groups in stereotypical ways. It is true that most actors or characters in commercials or even television shows are not playing main roles, but things have gotten better. For example, Asian Indians are often playing the role of the doctor or a scientist but then again, they also carry the burden of being negatively stereotyped as a Middle Eastern terrorist. There are countless of stereotypes that are evident in television commercials so even if the ethnic group is the main focus they could be depicted in the wrong way. Advertising, like the article says reflects reality but I would say great effective advertising resonates with the target audience and is relevant to that target. Also, the advertising industry needs to be aware of the constantly changing market and plan for the foreseeable future. So yes, experts expect that whites will no longer be the dominate race so advertisers have to recognize this social change and respond accordingly to trends. Especially with President Obama (as the article mentions, the industry is heavily impacted and going forward advertisers will have to change their objectives to convey their messages to their targets regardless of their race. It may seem weird to see multi-racial couples or families but the reality is that the world’s ethnic populations are changing and to make money in the advertising industry it is absolutely crucial to know everything possible about your target audience how your product or service will benefit them. So I do not see mutliculti ads as a way for America to show assimilation or appreciation for different ethnicities, it is just the constant change in the market and how the industry has to shift its goals and objectives.
I think this is a very interesting point only because when I look at pictures with groups of people in them one of the things I always notice is whether they put somebody from each race or if they are all the same. I know even a lot of the Penn State adds around campus do this. If anyone has seen the commercial for branch campuses they always have people of all different races, none of them have jut one race. Unfortunately I think either way they do it not everybody can be happy. I feel as though this advertisement used a white baby and a black baby maybe to make sure that everyone can relate to it. They probably thought that by doing this it will open up their customer base to a lot more people. As for the media altering our view of race I think can only be true to a certain extent. This is actually kind of aggravating because if you think about it, it is not just normal to put a white child and black child together, they actually have to think about it and the only reason they probably do it is because it will help their company. I think it has more to do with how you are brought up and what your parents and their parents think about the subject. The idea that maybe the media is now swinging our opinions in the complete opposite direction and saying that multi-racial is “cool” and “hip” is a very legitimate point. I think people look around them to see that black and white people are dating or things like this and feel like it is something that everyone else is doing and maybe they should try the same thing.
I also agree in them when saying “we're on the threshold of a new era of race relations and that it's bound to be positive for everyone” with every new generation I think the idea of race becomes less and less of a care. If you were to talk to people in their sixties or seventies and then go talk to teenagers or people in their twenties their opinion of race will be completely different from each other. Of course slavery was so long ago, but not as long for grandparents so when they see things like inter-racial couples it is much more shocking to them than it would be to kids in college. Of course I think this is a good thing for the world that it is becoming less shocking because it really should not matter. As we’ve been learning in class really everyone is the same, 99.9% of all humans are exactly the same and only .1% is different which is our outer make-up. However just because we look different on the outside does not mean that we should be treated differently since on the inside we are all basically the same.
When I first went to the Race Relations website and found that the E Trade commercial was an option for a response, I quickly jumped to it. I have seen the commercial more than a few times on TV and although it is cute portraying small children talking on cell phones and promoting the product, there seems to be more behind the commercial than just what it is advertising. This specific commercial along with numerous other advertisements have been heavily focused on embracing multiculturalism or focusing on a specific minority race. But is it becoming too obvious that we are trying to make a change or is it something we should be attempting to become comfortable with?
Although we have made vast progress in terms of racism and prejudices throughout America, it still exists today and I believe that because we have been working to eliminate it and bringing the major issues concerning race and different cultures to the surface, it is becoming more evident which may cause people to believe that we are trying too hard. In addition, the heavy influence of media in our culture is nothing new. We see media influencing us every day through ways of advertising different things such as diets, celebrities, and cosmetics. With the push of a button, we hear advertisements through the radio and even see it on the internet. So why not try to make the world a bit more multicultural in the same way as media sells other products and ideas? Makes sense right? I think this is exactly what this commercial is attempting to do. Personally, whether I notice it all the time or not, I find myself watching TV or reading magazines and making it a point that there is a black family in the commercial or there is an Asian girl modeling a shirt and pants. If I notice it then do black people and Asian people constantly notice that the majority of shows and commercials are based around white people? I can see how this can be irritating but by throwing two different kinds of races into one advertisement or TV show solve the problem? In my opinion, it doesn’t.
Another perfect example of this was the Rice Krispie commercials that were played not too long ago. The commercials were done in all black and white except for specific features of the Rice Krispies box. For example, the first commercial released was a white girl and her mother eating the cereal and the box was the only thing in color. The next commercial featured a black family in a kitchen scene doing something very similar to the first commerical. By no means am I trying to sound harsh in any way, but why was it necessary to make one commercial with a white family and then a basically identical commercial with a black family? You could look at this two ways; one being just make one commercial and pick a race, or two, do not make it so obvious that you are trying to please as many people as possible through advertisements and selling your product. Advertisements are targeting specific customers which might be a reason for the switch, but its irritating to me because it is so obvious what companies are doing. I realize that no matter what no one wins because as much as we as an American culture are trying to show political correctness, I can’t stand it because I see right through it and I am sure I am not the only one. The solution, I’m not quite sure but no matter how you look at it, someone will not be happy.
As a marketing major, this particular article from the Race Relations Blog really stood out to me. We’re taught that one little thing will make the difference between a successful ad and a fluke. Especially in print ads, every single word and picture is analyzed for just the right way to portray what we’re trying to say. I have always closely watched TV commercials and admired a great ad when I flip through a magazine. But it’s funny that nowadays pretty much every commercial or ad you see for any major company features people of different races. Like Sam said in his blog post, doesn’t it seem a little forced? It’s like, ok, really? A white person, an Asian, and an African American are all sitting around the table at their lunch break during work? Possible, but it just seems so staged and scripted that I think it screams “advertisement” and it almost discredits the company’s product in my eyes. During my internship this summer, I worked closely with my manager as she created new print media for some of our new products and systems. We have a group of “models” that we can pick from for our ads, and we were “encouraged” to always have at least one non-white person in the scene. I think that it’s great to depict in American ads more diversity, as our country is growing more diverse every year, but there gets to be a point when every ad you see features a racially mixed group that it looks more like a political-correctness push than true inclusion. But as always, there are many sides to every story. A marketer’s number one goal is to attract new customers and keep the old ones, and the business world is all about money. People should stop trying to act like it is something else. A company needs to generate revenue and if by jumping on the diversity bandwagon they can reach a wider range of potential customers, they will take that little bit of extra effort to make ads far reaching and racially diverse. As the article from MSNBC points out, by 2042, whites will no longer be the majority race in this country. Although they currently hold the most wealth and buying-power in the United States, other groups like African Americans and Hispanics are growing their buying power each year at a higher percentage than whites. Also, our generation, known as Generation Y, has grown up in a time when racial boundaries don’t really matter as much as they did when our parents and grandparents were growing up. Those older generations are not the target for most new ads, particularly for new products… we are. The racially diverse ad campaigns of the day are not going to go anywhere anytime soon and I think that we will continue to see even more of them in the future as people consider the changing demographics and attitudes of our country and companies keep seeing increased dollar signs from their efforts.
“These "multiculti" ads may be evidence of the vitality of assimilation, America's distinctive, master trend. To advertisers, though, they're simply smart business — a recognition of a new cultural mainstream that prizes diversity, a recognition that we are fast approaching a day when the predominant hue in America will no longer be white.” I don’t think that advertisers are attempting to change the world by making an effort to be “politically correct.” I think that they are just doing their jobs; targeting every possible market that they can in order to prosper. The only color marketers are at all concerned about is the color green. Think about it; making a commercial with all black people in it wouldn’t exactly draw in white’s interest in buying that product. The idea of having all different races portrayed probably makes everyone feel as if they are “in the circle” rather on the outside. I think it’s just a subconscious thing, not necessarily racist, that people tend to adhere to people that are most like them. Yes, Penn State has diversity, but if you really look around, are people actually interacting with different cultures as we like to imagine? I think the answer is no. You have your whites, blacks, Asians, etc… all pretty much hanging out with other whites, blacks, Asians, etc.
Sam makes a good point concerning the Penn State brochure. Whenever I see posters, brochures, or billboards that have a perfect distribution of race I always think to myself how that was so set up… “Umm I need a black over here… Oh and Asian too- we definitely need an Asian!” I really don’t consider advertisements like that to be very realistic because it was so obvious that it was planned that way that it kind of makes me think more about the actual advertisement rather than the whole point of it: the product. However; a good thing about this “visual diversity” thing is that younger kids may look to these advertisements and television shows thinking that that’s the way America is in reality. To automatically have a harmonious perception of life drilled into a kid’s head at an early age is a good thing, really. I think about how our grandparents must have seen advertisements and such and how that most likely did not help society progress into a very accepting place.
Maybe I’m naïve, but in my opinion people are more judgmental on a persons style, than race. For example people are labeled easily by what they wear; preppy, Gothic, ghetto, punk… I’ve seen all different races being stereotyped by their style more than their race.
Overall I don’t think that this approach to advertising is a bad thing. After all, American is a mix of races, so why not include everyone?
As a journalism major, I am constantly faced with the ethics and political correctness you are expected to possess as a member of the industry. There is no doubt that everyone within the umbrella of communications is faced with the ever-growing dilemma of how to approach marketing strategies so that we reach our target audience in a way they can relate to without appearing too forced. It seems that there has been a renewed interest in appearing unbiased in our selection of topics and subjects to appear in our advertising campaigns and commercials. However the question, as stated by Sam, is where do we draw the line between going with who best will get the message across and diversifying the cast as if to seem that they all magically became ideals candidates on their own?
I constantly am faced with all forms of the media as both a form of interest and academic requirements, so I feel I have a well-rounded view. As a viewer, when I see commercials such as the etrade commercial with the white and black infant, the thing that comes to mind immediately is the producer’s overt attempt at integrating different race types into their marketing.
But there again appears the catch-22 that Sam spoke about. If they don’t include a healthy mix of racial diversity, will the group that remains unrepresented feel stigmatized and therefore be less likely to buy into the company or brand? I do feel that due to my somewhat overexposed perspective on the media that I may be overanalyzing it a little more than your average joe flipping through channels. Someone who hasn’t been constantly presented with hypothetical questions and different marketing strategies in classes and extracurriculars day in and day out may not see as obvious of an attempt by the advertisers as me.
At the same time, I don’t necessarily blame advertisers for jumping at the opportunity to attract the new young adult generation. In my opinion, this is the most open-minded generation that has come along in decades and any chance to demonstrate just how “equal opportunity” of an establishment they are will in some way or another gain bonus points with their desired demographic. As many of the people who were at the heart of the civil rights movement (no matter which side they stood on) begin to enter older years and inevitably die off, we as the new adults have the chance to stand for something better than our predecessors, to look beyond color boundaries. I do believe that while we are not perfect and far from completely accepting one another, immense steps have been taken to prove we are much different and open than previous generations.
All in all, with this not-so-subtle marketing approach to conveniently include a representative of every racial group, we have to keep an open mind. We need to realize that the writers and masterminds behind it have their own reasoning for including those specific people. I do feel that we can view it as continued progress toward a more tolerant country and a good-intentioned measure symbolizing the dawn of a new era.
Since advertising has been brought to the visual media scene, so to say, marketers have had to choose to cast certain people. Now, in the days of black and white advertising, seeing people of any non-white coloring would be an anomaly at best. However after the 60’s, 70’s and the onsets of the civil rights movement, to have a blatantly white-orientated commercial could seem racist.
However, now, virtually every single commercial you see that has more than one person has a token Black, Asian or Hispanic person in it. And yes, we know that Latino is an offset of the Caucasian race, but the media, and the world has seemed to create a powerful subset that needs to be represented. As it says the in blog post, such political correctness is almost essential now for commercials to be successful. But then, that’s only in commercials in North America and Western Europe, and only really recently. I remember adverts in England showing almost purely white people, despite the fact that in most of the cities, white people are now a minority. For example, there was an Ambrosia rice pudding advert that showed people in a train station singing. Even in 1998 when the commercial was made, it was impossible to film a legitimate train station without getting some non-Caucasian skin shown, but in it, everyone is wearing Tweed, reading newspapers and looking very, very English. Now, the advert was supporting the fact that the product was pure and simply English, which is something that the English seem to like, but if that was shown in the US, it wouldn’t be very successful. But let’s be honest here, if you watch TV in Japan, as I used to do with depressing frequency when I lived there, every single Japanese commercial for a Japanese product was filmed with Japanese actors and actresses. Occasionally a white person would wander onto the screen, but only because the Japanese seem to relate white people with Hollywood, and thus, glamour and wealth. White people really only came into ads that were badly dubbed infomercials for proactive and the like. And then once they could find an actual Japanese person to interview about the miraculous nature of the product, boom, white person gone. To my knowledge, I never saw a single black, brown or latino person in a single commercial in Japan. The most popular ones had little Japanese girls singing with giant dancing animals, or young fresh faced women talking to the camera about refrigerators and mundane things like that.
This is a correlation that we seem to see here. Now, if you go to Japan, you could go days without seeing a white person, weeks without seeing a black person, but everyone was Asian. The same is true, so an extent in China and South East Asia, but I’m less familiar with those cultures. Although this seems superficial, people relate to the products being sold by people who look like them. It tends to look like it’s more credible. When you see commercials in the States, you can see which demographic the advertisers are trying to target. Walmart and Target ads are exclusively moms with kids, while Progressive ads seem to be directed at white people. Try to figure out the logic behind that one, because it seems to be beyond me.
Mass media and advertising plays a major role in the alteration of our perceptions about people of different racial and cultural group throughout a means of communication. The mass media is consists of newspapers, motion pictures, radio, television, and magazines, which all have the technical capacity to deliver information to millions of people or a large audience of some sort which advertising is the activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media. These public announcements are especially to proclaim the qualities or advantages of (a product or business) so as to increase sales. Because how certain stereotypes are portray within different racial and cultural group, advertisement paint the picture for the general public and the mass media is the coach or the master of ceremony also know as a MC. Many examples can come from how most black celebrity makes the biggest headlines in the mass media than white celebrities, how certain colleges and university use different racial or cultural group on their flyer knowing the school is pre-dominantly whites, and how certain views are twisted throughout many lies which lead to outrageous stereotypes or pre-judgmental statements. A good primary example of how the mass media and advertising alters people perceptions about different racial and cultural group is Michael Vick. Michael Vick is a National Football League Quarterback also knows as the NFL QB. After when Michael Vick got accused for killing dog over dog fighting, Vick image took a downfall and lost all of his endorsement deals such as nike air. As of today, Michael Vick did his time in jail yet a lot of animals activist are attacking Michael for what he did. Once analyzing and seeking your final results, it is all about money. It takes millions of dollars to make, promoter, and sell advertisement and the mass media but it only take a week to ruin a human beings reputation which greed control the minds. A friend of mines name Calvin Cutta expresses this quote to me which said,” It’s easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference. The funny thing about this blog is at the advertisement company and the mass media is consists of our peers, colleagues, neighbors, and those among our society could probably work with the mass and advisement company which is making them the problem behind this outrage and plus these two components are suppose to build good images in society so that many in society can have different values on different concepts but yet destroy racial and cultural groups. By Concluding, Advertisement and the mass media is only after one thing that satisfy them which is money but society just settle for the norm. Because of that, nothing will never change and the mass media and advertisement company will always win and corrupts the minds of society unless you carry a strong openly values among themselves.
When companies decide to make a commercial or to produce some other form of advertising, there are several goals they try to achieve. Other than attempting to get consumers to purchase their product, they have to be politically correct in the process. In my opinion, this makes for very cheesy, boring, and less effective advertisements.
When commercials are being made it is often too clear that the producers are making a good effort to not offend any other parties who may be watching. This is often leads to dumb and almost comical commercials. Is it really necessary to be so politically correct when the whole world knows that racism and racial inequality is still a very real part of our everyday world? I understand that we as a society are trying to move to a place where race doesn’t matter but I don’t think advertisements is the most effective means of doing this anyway. If advertisements were just set in everyday life they would be funnier and more effective in getting consumers attention.
One problem with keeping it real so to speak is people will get offended by the stereotypes portrayed. Many commercials including the one with the stock broker babies portray minorities in a funny way. I could understand how this might offend some people but at the same time white people are not safe either. If anything, I believe whites are made fun of and laughed at on television a lot more often than any other minority. People need to develop tougher skin and learn to laugh at themselves because if you take life too seriously, you will never get out alive Despite who is being made fun of, commercials that are not politically correct are more memorable and will produce more revenue for companies. In a down economy, businesses need all the consumers buying their products as possible. This may in turn stimulate the economy and get our nation out of this rut. A long shot, I know, but regardless the effect would be positive for businesses.
One argument for political correctness in advertising is the effect it has on the children in society. Children are like sponges that absorb any information they see so it makes sense to teach them that race doesn’t matter. In a perfect world, tv would be the answer to curing racism because children could be taught from a young age to be tolerant. In the real world, however, children are going to be exposed to racism everywhere they go. Why go through the trouble of making horrible commercials when racism is still going to exist? There is no reason. I’m not saying make commercials racist, but I believe they need to be a little more real. Political correctness in the media has its place but I still do not approve.
Well I will just start this with saying yes it is true that I am a white girl! However, I have no idea what my ethnic background is so I can’t really say that I am partial to any one specific person of one ethnic background. So when I read this blog I didn’t really necessarily think of my self as anything other than an American. So when we begin to talk about the idea of “political correctness” I think that it means that everyone should be included, but doesn’t necessarily mean that in every situation you have to over exaggerate this idea of equally displaying every culture. For example, in a brochure for penn state there will be a photo of five “students” and each one of them will be from a different ethnic background. Meanwhile I would say that the majority of us are of mixed backgrounds, yes we have many exchange students from Malaysia, India and many other countries but the majority of the Penn State students are not of just one ethnic background and I think that it is unfair/ unethical to show our student body as if no one is mixed. At the same time if there was a photo of five students and they all were white that would appropriately show the student body of Penn State either. If there was such a brochure there of course would be a lot more out lash toward the school though and I would be among those who didn’t agree with it.
This is all true but we are always talking about how things are changing and people are becoming more understand toward other ethnicities and there is less and less “racism” than ever before but I still see it in some situations that no one ever seems to point out because they don’t want to be the bad guy. If that brochure was of entirely white people many faculty members, students, alumni, and citizens would be outraged that no other ethnicity was depicted in the photo. But lets turn the tables for just a moment; the brochure is now of five people two of which are black, two are Asian, one Hispanic. Do you think anyone would bring attention to the fact that there were no white people in the photo? I would have to say probably not. Even though times are changing and we are moving into a new era when I white person says anything that is not positive toward other people of different ethnic backgrounds they are still scrutinized. I don’t think this is fair either. I love people of all backgrounds I don’t care what color you are if you’re a good person I would love to associate myself with you! But why does it seem that I can’t want my “ethnicity” to be represented just as much as yours? I sometimes think that white people are still looked at as being “racist” but it isn’t always the case we just want to be represented to!
I agree on the race and advertising blog and how it said that it is becoming more central to TV advertising. I also agree with the blog when they said at the end that race is bound to be more positive for everyone. I agree with these things because I myself have seen a huge difference in the present as opposed to the past. I feel that there weren’t a lot of commercials in the 80’s and 90’s that had a lot of diversity. People for the most part were white but there were however people of other ethnic backgrounds. I just feel that there is even more of that today and now it’s better than it’s ever been. I think that years ago the main population didn’t really see how it was affecting other people to not include different races in commercials and ads. People didn’t see the big picture and understand how important it was to have all people no matter what color in a commercial.
I think people do get offended when they see a commercial that’s just all white people or black people or Asian people especially if it’s a product or something that every race can use which in basically any case is everything. I also find it silly when I see a commercial in America that’s all white or any other race. It’s good to see other races in a commercial because everyone feels apart of society and feels like they have a place on this earth. It’s not like we are just trying to apply to whites or any other group. There are many races that live in America and it’s important that we reach out to everyone.
Now in the present, commercials and ads are showing much more improvement with including everyone. Almost every commercial now has mixed race in it. When I watch TV I see commercials with more races being included than I have ever seen before. I think we as a society are starting to realize that it’s important to include all races in commercials because there’s more than just a single race living on earth and it’s the right thing to do. Every race deserves some kind or credibility in commercials and ads shown on TV. I agree with the blog when it was talking about the Penn State ads and how you can identify a lot of races within the ad. That’s how all the ads at Penn State should be made because the university is so diverse and even if it wasn’t it should still have people of all races. If someone saw their race in a commercial it would make them feel more comfortable and welcome. We as a society have definitely come a long way and its only going to get better in the future.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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