Saw this over at Kenny’s place, and it resonated with me:
While marooned in Siberia a hotel room over the past four months, I watched probably more “regular” TV shows than I’ve watched in more than twenty years past. And over time, I suddenly realized that the above meme is quite correct: there aren’t any.
I mean, yes there are a few White people around, but you have to really look out for them. And if not solo acts, they’re as often as not part of a mixed-race couple, or a figure of fun and ridicule.
“Oh Kim,” I hear the progressive wokists gloat, “now you know how the POC [persons of color — I know] felt all these years, when ad agencies never cast Black or Brown people in ads except as part of a stereotype-filler.”
And if these oh-so smart, hip creative types (mostly, it should be said, based in New York, L.A. and Chicago) want to redress a long-ago grievance, that’s fine. But it cuts several ways.
Do you think a Chinese consumer is going to respond well to a commercial featuring Black actors? Or an Indian consumer to an ad featuring a mixed-race couple and their coffee-colored babies? Or, for that matter, a White consumer — oh wait; that’s because all Whites are raaaaaayyyciss and POCs can’t be.
Uh huh.
Having been in this game myself, I also know that the reason behind casting Whites was that that particular demographic group was where the market (i.e. the money) was. And if I can be honest: in time, I (and many, many others of my ilk) may come to treat advertising precisely the same way that Blacks and such used to treat all-White TV commercials: as something to be ignored.
Ignore that message at your peril, Madison Avenue.
You won’t be warning any marketing or advertising groups out of Madison Avenue Kim. They produce this crap for their corporate clients because they ask for it and won’t have anything else. They aren’t worried about the temporary loss of profits at all – they see it as essential virtue signaling and in the circles they run in – I suppose it is. They are all for diversity as long as the corporate hotshots don’t have to experience it themselves. They are wealthy enough to insulate themselves and don’t have to live in neighbourhoods threatened by BLM and ANTIFA, and they don’t have to cover for the affirmative action flunky or the diversity hire as a daily hassle in their jobs. It has been my observation that affluent white boomers are almost blind to the the clouds gathering around us.
The workplace is a political minefield now thanks to this bullshit and it’s only going to get worse. There is a reason our ancestors treated the various races the way they did. Genetics are real.
I suspect that how big corporations view TV advertising has changed. It used to be TV ad were used to (a) inform the buying population that a product existed and (b) tell them why THEIR rendition of that particular product was so much BETTER than their competitors. Now anyone looking for a product has a whole interweb full of reviews to scroll thru, so TV ads no longer accomplish much.
So instead, companies view TV ads in much the same way railroads used to view passenger service (back when train was The Way to travel). It was basically advertising for the freight business, which is where the real money was. So if a business executive had to travel from NYC to Chicago (an overnight trip), and he was well treated on Pennsylvania Railroad, when time came to ship a few boxcars of widgets he’d have his secretary call PRR to arrange shipment. Now the companies think the consumer will say “Oh, ABC Co has those nice commercials with all the brown faces, I’ll buy their product.” Because companies have NEVER screwed up by the numbers when it comes to drawing consumers to their product (coughNewCokecough).
The commercials are worse than the shows, and the shows are in-your-face insults to anyone with a two-digit IQ; you need negative numbers to not be insulted by the commercials.
Typical of the genus, there’s a car commercial where the driver almost runs into a stopped car but is saved by the car’s auto-brake function, at which point the lily-white kid in the back seat says “good stop, mom.” To a smiling dark brown-skinned woman driver, who is next to a hipster-goateed Bright White in the passenger seat. Then there are the playful, cuddling guys on the couch,
I do not know to whom all these fuckers on TV are trying to sell their shit, but it sure as hell ain’t me. Not only have I stopped buying, I’ve stopped watching.
I haven’t donated my TV to the Salvation Army yet – I still use it for old movies, you know, the ones with characters, plots and intelligent dialog – but I do have them on speed dial, just in case.
I subscribed to Consumer Reports. My old man would buy it from time to time, and I remember the testing and the articles. More often than not they were dead wrong. I remember them liking the Ford Taurus. I had two different ones as company cars, and I had a sable wagon. None were very good. They were OK at best. All of them broke in the exact same manner.
The writing isn’t anywhere near as good. And, it’s woke.
BTW- The grammar I was taught had masculine, feminine, and plural – he/she/they. When the sex was unknown, you used the masculine – he. But what I see now all over is the use of the feminine – “When you go to the doctor, she’ll give you medicine”. “When the sanitation worker comes to the door, she’ll ask you for your payment” Drives me nuts.
The current issue has zero white males depicted in any form, mostly graphics. It starts with a white woman/asian dude couple with asian kids. Later on there’s a black family. Every graphic that depicts anything – like inhalers or earbuds – is a black woman.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess black women don’t read a lot of consumer reports. I told them to cancel my subscription.
“Every graphic that depicts anything – like inhalers or earbuds – is a black woman.”
Just more proof that today’s “average TV family” is an hispanic male, a black female and 3 asian children.
Assuming that the family even has a male in it…..most seem dependent on the gay guy living next door for “male representation.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/disney-executive-admits-to-passing-scripts-diversity
Advertisers and tv producers are way past the point of competing on quality. MASH, Seinfeld, Cheers, That 70’s Show… none of them could be made today because they wouldn’t make it past the diversity gatekeepers.
You forgot a work of TV genius from Norman Lear – “All in the Family”
Mel Brooks laments that “Blazing Saddles” could not be made today.
Kim!
I thought you knew better than to correct your adversary when s/z/he was committing to blunder.
There is a car commercial with a white husband, a black wife, and two obviously mixed-race children. There are commercials depicting mixed-race gay and/or lesbian couples. Then there are commercials where the actors/actresses throw in a few Spanish words. All are trying to sell wokeism as normal.
Advertising companies have gone beyond their years-old efforts to make White Males appear like bumbling morons, to bending over backwards to include every possible combination of race, sex, sexual activity, and nationality. If you go by what they show, Whites are a small minority in the nation, “normal” marriages do not exist, and every home is now bi-racial, multi-sexual, or has English as a second language.
Have noticed the same thing especially in the past year or so. Have never seen such a WIDE variety of individuals, all appearing to be related, in ‘one place’. In some of the ‘mixed race couple’ commercials, often, one of the races is just glimpsed but the point is there.
You’re going to be seeing a LOT more of this.
Pure sucking up / capitulation / surrender / appeasement – pick one or more – and it will only accomplish more alienation ! No one will be happy and no one will be satisfied that ‘enough’ has been done to ‘balance the scales’.
Good luck.
Matters not. We don’t watch anything ” live” anymore. Everything goes to the DVR. Fast forward through all the commercials. With very few exceptions, haven’t watched a “prime time major network” show in years.
Many of us have noticed this. I probably haven’t sat in front of the TV in our house to actually watch a TV show in at least five years. At least. Then we go somewhere to eat and it is non-stop. We were eating wings at a sports bar the other night and ESPN was on mute and the entire time we were there, the “sports” network was talking about bLM and George Floyd interspersed with commercials of mixed race couples and homosexuals. This even though the consumers with the greatest spending power in America are White people.
Corporate America is not our friend and voting for their interests for decades has gotten us this in return.
Just when I think it won’t get worse…it does.
I’m up in Plano, waiting for my PT appointment. On the TV is an ED commercial. Can’t remember what drug with was that would makeadickwork. But it was a bleck guy with the issue.
And the end they show the black hand clasping a petite white one in ecstasy. What the hell.
I’m done.
I’m a done tom turkey…https://youtu.be/V-XTJBrU52Y
You guys must not watch much TV. This has been going on since the light bringer got elected. It is getting pretty bad though. Just tells me what I will not be buying this century.
I’ve noticed. It’s been going on for awhile but they’ve cranked up the volume demonstrably over the past year. It’s not just TV. Just try to look at a magazine these days. Major websites are onboard with the insanity too. I’ve read there are 3 or 4 major advertising agency’s that are behind this push.
About 10 years ago we cut the wire and started buying DVD TV series from back in the 50’s early 60’s. We now have 4 DVD players in the living room and we watch a 30min or 1hr old show while eating supper. The rest of the time we have other things to occupy our senses. The current DVD line up we are enjoing is 1. Gunsmoke, 2. Perry Mason, 3. Have Gun Will Travel, 4. Peter Gunn.
Hmmm, just noticed. 3 of them have “gun” in the title. A criminal communist might construe there is a hidden agenda in there.
But surely, Kim, you’ve noticed that so many of the attractive white women in ads are now redheads? I don’t know where they find them all, sure aren’t any around here. But gosh, in the ads they’re everywhere. Often with black husbands and polyglot kids of course.