|
|
| Re: Why is it that you never see a black person being the goofy one on tv commercials? (1260802) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > OTChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: Why is it that you never see a black person being the goofy one on tv commercials? |
|
|
Posted by SLRT on Wed Jan 28 07:02:27 2015, in response to Why is it that you never see a black person being the goofy one on tv commercials?, posted by ntrainride on Tue Jan 27 23:48:03 2015. Not always.I think we're starting to mature from the era where black people in commercials were "racial representatives" and had to be always carefully handled. Commercials have been slowly changing to portray black people as "just people." I just saw a La Quinta commercial in which a black person sitting at a board meeting was labeled as a "Yes Man" (the white before him was a "Brown Noser") and only one person, a white man was the "Boss." Still, certain portrayals are still taboo: such as portrayal of burglars in security commercials as anything other than white. And you have commercials showing black families where the black dad is portrayed as foolish while mom or the kids are smart and clever. This last, of course, the silly dad and the wise wife, is a cultural constant that hasn't changed much. we've had Ralph and Alice, Kingfish and Safire, and I'm sure you can think of many more. They've also learned to be careful about kids lecturing parents. The advertisers thought they were portraying "modern and up-to-date" vs. "old-fashioned"; instead they were alienating their older consumers as they saw "your kids are smarter than you, OLD MAN." |
|
|
|