Theres yet another commercial i hate.
So ok, first i'd like to talk about why i think so many commercials piss me off. Commercials think they have target audiences. So the swiffer duster commercial that plays on Lifetime at 1 in the afternoon is supposedly targeted to housewives (rather than college students home for the summer watching reruns of Grey's Anatomy, thank you very much). So advertising agencies make their commercials really vague and stereotypical, thinking they'll appeal to a larger amount of their target audience. The problem with this is that I'm not a housewife, but I am watching these commercials. So what about all those stay at home dads? or any other variation on the societal norm? It's sad that commercials only show a black and white world where "mom knows best" and isn't he silly, he can't cook!
One that really pisses me off right now is the new staples back to school commercial. I feel like it's a bit racist. I may be reading too much into it (and feel free to stop reading and swear me off for good if you disagree), but it seems racist. So ok, the scene goes like this. A young black man is looking over his back to school list and says "Hey this is funny, I'm going to make mom nervous about the cost of all my school supplies." Cue flashback of years past where mom is stressed over making sure her son has all the supplies he'll need to succeed in school. In present day, she pulls out her easy button and knows that, this year with the help of staples, she'll be able to provide for her son.
The reason i think this is racist is because it shows a black family, no father in sight or mentioned at all, and they're worrying about money. The first thing i think of is a single parent home where the mom is forced to take all shifts (mom, housewife, primary wage earner, etc) and needs help making ends meet. As I said before, advertising agencies feed on cultural stereotypes. So Staples is hoping that a real woman, like the one i just described, will watch this, identify with it, and go to staples.
The point is, we learn how to be people in the world in part though commercials. So as we learn what is "normal," we'll see that black women often are single mothers who want to be able to provide for their two children, but need help. Of course this is not true of all black women, just like it's not true that all white women are completely stable in their marriages and relationships. The more commercials use racist, sexist, heterosexist, etc stereotypes, the more difficult it will become (or remain rather) to move away from these ideas and move towards a more universal society.
The problem with expecting advertising firms to be inclusive lies in the fact that they need to market products to the largest amount of people possible. If they constantly worried about correctly portraying a cross cut of the population, they wouldn't be making money. Didn't someone once say something about money being the root of all evil? Anyway, because they must appeal to as many people as possible, advertisers are forced to deal in generalities. I'm sorry, but I think the majority of people who watch Lifetime happen to be women who stay home. Since they want the majority of the people watching the show to be able to relate to the people in commercials, they have to use broad stereotypes to connect with a broad audience.
ReplyDeleteAlso, archetypes and stereotypes aren't necessarily meant to represent the actual population of viewers, but are meant to act as a trustworthy spokesperson for the product. Most people associate housewives with cleaning products, so Glade and Pine-Sol commercials feature women displaying the products, just like you might turn to your mother for advice on how to remove the wine stain from your carpet.
Regardless, I agree with you. It would be really nice if advertisers used same-sex couples in cereal commercials, but in practice, same-sex couples are a minority, and aren't the "ideal" image of a family to most Americans.
Advertisers don't (generally) make a conscious effort to enforce negative stereotypes, they just use basic psychology to appeal to a broad market share. If you want to instigate change in the portrayal of certains peoples or groups in the media, you shouldn't expect advertisers to be the catalysts.
Even if you actually made ads supporting diversity in advertising, you would immediately polarize anyone who wasn't part of the misrepresented population in the same way that political ads aren't generally effective in anyone but swing voters.
Just some thoughts.
indeed. I don't expect advertisers to be the catalysts, I expect us (the people who see the problem) to be catalysts.
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