Racism in TV adverts

Fretwired

Clarky said:

so is the puppy mixed race?

It's brown and white so is in keeping with the overall ambience and mood of the shot ... so artistically 'yes' .. :-)

Gagaryn

Emp_Fab said:

BloodEagle said:

Did you think of creating this thread before or after your nightly bottle of wine?

... it occurred to me that I couldnt recall ever seeing a black couple, or a 100% black family ever in an advert.

Not controversial at all.  Just having a conversation with me peeps.

Racist! That advert for fried chicken, rice and peas definitely features a black couple. ;-)

holnrew

I tend to notice more brown men with white women, probably because I'm secretly racist and resent them taking "our" women.

Iamnobody

holnrew said:

I tend to notice more brown men with white women, probably because I'm secretly racist and resent them taking "our" women.

I think you would probably be correct. In many cultures marrying outside your race is still frowned upon - for the women. It's ok for the men though because they are deemed superior...

You don't see many Asian women with white men for this reason. Although it is becoming more common with 2nd and 3rd generation British Indians. And black women.

I doubt you'd see many Pakistani Muslim girls marring outside the family let alone their race...

Bidley

Can't beat a good Emp troll thread.

JezWynd

Clarky said:

Fretwired said:

JezWynd said:

You really are a wanker most of the time. You've totally misrepresented what he's said. I think Emp_Fab has a genuine point (far more so than you have). Perhaps it's an age related issue, people of Emp's age grew up in a very different world to you. They're aware that racism is wrong, don't wish to encourage it but at the same time were bought up at a time when it was routinely okay to disparage people of different races. For the record, I think he's pretty much right, (excepting the advertising, though he's not far off the facts there either). It's telling that the examples shown are xmas feelgood ads aimed at proving how inclusive, caring and fuzzywarm John Lewis, Sainsburys etc are. In the general run of the mill afternoon tv stuff, racial stereotyping definitely exists, as does ageism.

Oh yeah ... Dreams advert .. run in the afternoon .. I only picked on the JL adverts as I remember them .. over 1 in 10 families in the UK are mixed race .. that's a lot of cash for advertisers. Look at areas like London and the figure rises ..

so is the puppy mixed race?

No, it's a Mongol.

Emp_Fab

Bidley said:

Can't beat a good Emp troll thread.

It's not a troll thread.  It's a question asking if advertisers are trying too hard to appear PC.

If that's trolling, perhaps you could suggest a list of sanitised, approved subjects we can talk about?

Grunfeld

Iamnobody said:

I doubt you'd see many Pakistani Muslim girls marring outside the family let alone their race...

This has got to depend on where you look.  E.g. London has loads of everyone so inevitably you'll see everything here -- especially in the kind of places where I work where there are loads of second, third generation, and who typically have at least a degree-level of education.  Basically there's lots of opportunity to mix with everyone and mixed-everything is okay so it happens lots.

capo4th

I think everyone is ticking boxes and it's mostly an inaccurate representation.

Drew_TNBD

I know a dude who has a British Indian wife.

I'd eat her shit I would. She's sooooooooo hot!!

Emp_Fab

Drew_TNBD said:

You really are a wanker sometimes. If you walk around thinking that 50% of the people you see are "probably racists, although I don't want to use the word racist coz it makes me look like a nobber" then you've got some serious issues.

Mate... Do you have to respond to everything you don't agree with in this juvenile tone?  I mean, come on... You're hardly fourteen anymore.  Do you converse with people like this in real life or is this just an Internet thing?

Everytime you lash out with profanity and exaggerated offence, you make me think I'm talking with this kid...



As as for the 50% thing, remember.. I live out in the sticks.  Most people do.  I'm basing my assessment on my experiences here.  Just because you live in a huge multicultural metropolis where every other face is from a different culture and it's all cool and groovy doesn't make it so for the rest of the country.  Until about twenty years ago, a black person would have stood out like an alien down here.  I grew up in London in the late 60's and early 70's and most of my friends were Afro-Caribbean or Asian.  When we moved to Swansea, they were conspicuous by their absence.

People who haven't been exposed to lots of different cultures are often wary of them, which was quite obviously my point and I went on to explain exactly that.  You however chose to focus on one word and have a tantrum, calling me a wanker.  Really ?

professorben

Drew_TNBD said:

I know a dude who has a British Indian wife.

I'd eat her shit I would. She's sooooooooo hot!!

Pics or it didnt happen 

jonnyburgo

There was an ad a while ago that featured black people camping, now we know that is bullshit right there.

boogieman

professorben said:

Drew_TNBD said:

I know a dude who has a British Indian wife.

I'd eat her shit I would. She's sooooooooo hot!!

Pics or it didnt happen 

I really don't want to see Drew eating shit thanks. 

jonnyburgo

Emp_Fab said:

Can you name a product that uses an all-black family or a white woman with a guy from a different race ?  I just haven't seen any, though I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

Christmas ad last year featured all black family, can't remember who was advertising though.

boogieman

jonnyburgo said:

Emp_Fab said:

Can you name a product that uses an all-black family or a white woman with a guy from a different race ?  I just haven't seen any, though I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

Christmas ad last year featured all black family, can't remember who was advertising though.

The BBC tv licence ads have a black family. There's a Sainsbury's one running currently that features a black foster mum and a load of her foster kids, although I'm not sure if that qualifies as a family or not. 

Dont forget that the majority of ad companies are London based and are probably basing the ads on personal experience: London is massively multiethnic. In my daughter's class at primary school she was the only child from a family that could claim to be more than a couple of generations old British-born, out of 30 kids. Her only "white" friend was Romanian. 

kaypeejay

holnrew said:

I tend to notice more brown men with white women, probably because I'm secretly racist and resent them taking "our" women.

Well, seeing as my ex-wife was of Black-Trinidadian descent and she and her two sisters all married white blokes, I suggest you're not looking very hard.

StormshadowGuitars

Emp_Fab said:

Can you name a product that uses an all-black family or a white woman with a guy from a different race ?  I just haven't seen any, though I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

Soul-Glo !! , oh no wait a minute that was on Coming to America

Philly_Q

boogieman said:

Dont forget that the majority of ad companies are London based and are probably basing the ads on personal experience: London is massively multiethnic.

I think it's a bit more than that, they must cast these adverts very carefully and there is definitely a conscious decision to paint a particular picture of modern multicultural Britain.  Whether that's political correctness, some kind of positive discrimination, simple right-on-ness or just a calculated attempt to appeal to the widest cross-section of the buying public, I don't know.

Whatever it is, it's probably just a phase and nobody will think about it any more in a few years' time.

To some extent, these cuddly multicultural families seem to have supplanted another advertising cliché - families with super-capable, multi-tasking mums and clueless idiotic lumps of dads - so that's probably a step forward.

Drew_TNBD

Emp_Fab said:

Drew_TNBD said:

You really are a wanker sometimes. If you walk around thinking that 50% of the people you see are "probably racists, although I don't want to use the word racist coz it makes me look like a nobber" then you've got some serious issues.

Mate... Do you have to respond to everything you don't agree with in this juvenile tone?  I mean, come on... You're hardly fourteen anymore.  Do you converse with people like this in real life or is this just an Internet thing?

Everytime you lash out with profanity and exaggerated offence, you make me think I'm talking with this kid...



As as for the 50% thing, remember.. I live out in the sticks.  Most people do.  I'm basing my assessment on my experiences here.  Just because you live in a huge multicultural metropolis where every other face is from a different culture and it's all cool and groovy doesn't make it so for the rest of the country.  Until about twenty years ago, a black person would have stood out like an alien down here.  I grew up in London in the late 60's and early 70's and most of my friends were Afro-Caribbean or Asian.  When we moved to Swansea, they were conspicuous by their absence.

People who haven't been exposed to lots of different cultures are often wary of them, which was quite obviously my point and I went on to explain exactly that.  You however chose to focus on one word and have a tantrum, calling me a wanker.  Really ?

Idiota.