1. SoBe involved more African Americans than Caucasian people in its 2009 Super Bowl commercial. (the men featured in this commercial were professional athletes)
2. Jello commercials featured Bill Cosby for years.
3. McDonald’s Cha Cha Slide commercial featured a black family
4. McDonald’s has commercials about the McDonald’s Latino youth leader of the month which features an all Latino Commercial
5. Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial featured a black mother and daughter eating at KFC
6. Lexus IS Commercials only feature Caucasian people
7. Little Caesar’s Hot’n’Ready Pizza showed all white people and only one Black man who was in the back cooking the pizza (subservient to white people)
8. Listerine commercial features a white black and Asian person
9. DSW shoes commercial is very diverse featuring a wide range of different races
10. Popeye’s Chicken features an African Americana women as the main focus of the commercial
The first commercial that had substantial minorities was a SoBe commercial and every person in that commercial was a professional football player upholding the stereotype that most African Americans are superior athletes.
The second commercial was actually replayed on the TV Show "Family Guy." This TV show referred to the age old Jello commercials that featured Bill Cosby. Although these commercials featured a an African American it is noticed that he's a famous icon and non-famous African Americans are generally featured in a long time commercial series as Cosby was in the Jello commercials.
The third commercial was a McDonald's commercial that featured a black family eating fast food while eating it to the beat of the Cha Cha Slide song which, is a rap song. This is a stereotype in the fact that most African Americans are featured in rap as well as fast food commercials.
The fourth commercial was played during the Jeff Capel show and it was the McDonald's Latino youth leader of the month. This commercial is a local commercial that features a different Latino Student each month.
The fifth commercial was a KFC commercial that featured a black mother and daughter enjoying KFC. This meets the stereotype that the black community enjoy fried chicken more then other races and upholds the belief that African Americans are featured mainly in fast food commercials.
The sixth commercial was a Lexus commercial. I particularly noticed that the Lexus IS commercials never once featured a race other than Caucasian. With this being a luxury car this upholds the stereotype that Caucasians are the only race that can afford this vehicle.
The seventh commercial was a Little Caesar's commercial that featured all white people except a black man was barely noticeable in the background cooking the pizza. This upholds the stereotype that African Americans are generally featured as subservient to white people.
The eighth commercial was a Listerine commercial that was the most diverse commercial that I witnessed. It featured Caucasian, African American, and Asian people equally.
The ninth commercial was a DWS shoes which was also very diverse. It featured a wide range of women ranging in race and ethnicity. Although this was very diverse, Caucasian women were featured more often than other races.
The tenth commercial was a Popeye's commercial featuring a black women working at Popeye's. This displays that black people work mainly at fast food restaurants, and also it upholds the stereotype that the black community enjoys fried chicken.
These commercials were just the commercials that stood out to me when monitoring race. The commercials that did not however featured only white actors and actresses. This goes to support the claim that minorities have had a hard time breaking into the commercial world and when they do they generally support some kind of stereotype. Although these commercials may seem extreme and the fact that minorities are rarely seen in commercials this may have to do with the channels I tend to view the most. Regardless, the lack of diversity in advertisements was very noticeable and catered the the Caucasian community.
I agree with you that it was hard to find commercials where minorities were represented. However, you say the lack of diversity may be because of the channels you watch. I disagree. Not to sound biased, but with the information I have learned in class, it seems like there would be more minorities on channels like ESPN and Comedy Central. We learned that African Americans are usually stereotyped as athletic and are generally cast in comedies. It would make the most sense to include minorities on these channels. This just goes to show that even the places where minorities are more likely to tune in, companies will still not feature minorities in their commercials.
ReplyDeleteThis very concept became apparent to me in my ad watching as well. I noticed that people of non-Caucasian decent are often depicted as subservient or in very stereotypical ways. I have hope and I think the times are achangin’. I feel that ever since the election of President Obama and country is becoming less and less afraid of having African-Americans in the forefront of ads. I’ve noticed especially that print ads seem to be focusing more and more on the product and have less and less models in them. I also found an ad where an African-American woman actually stood OVER a Caucasian woman as she slept. It wasn’t even in a creepy way; it was like she was watching over her, like an angel. So to sum things up, I think things are changing, but like everything else it is going to take time. Hopefully, by the time our kids our grown, race will be a thing of the past.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what you said. The one thing I disagree with could just be the fact that I watch different channels that you typically do, but while I was doing my analysis of advertisements I found that of all the different minority races, blacks were by far the most represented, much more than Latinos, Asians, or Native Americans. However, even with blacks being the most highly represented of the minority races they were undeniably no where near the amount of representation and coverage of whites. I completely agree that when minorities are represented they are most typically displayed in a stereotypical manner. Also I noticed that a majority of the time when blacks were represented, they were done so by a famous person, it was much more rare to see a non-famous person, which contradicts greatly with whites.
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