Monday, October 8, 2012

Race & Advertising

You may have noticed the title, so let me get to it: You’re watching The Office, and a Mercedes commercial for the new GLK comes on. A random classic rock song is playing, and amid the engine sounds and Freddie Mercury screaming his heart out in the background, you think to yourself ‘ Wow, that’s a great car! I love all the features...maybe I want to go for a test drive.”

An hour later, You’re watching Real Housewives of Atlanta- the same commercial comes on, only Barry White or Issac Hayes is playing in the background. And you think to yourself ‘ WTF? Why are they playing Barry/ Issac in a car commercial! That doesn’t make me want to drive fast, that makes me want to get it on in the backseat!”

Alright, so maybe you aren’t feeling getting it on in the backseat..but as a black person, I am really getting sick of these ads that are supposed to appeal to us, when really I feel they are more irritating than appealing. Mcdonald’s is good for it- The spoken word about a quarter pounder, a bunch of kids hanging on some east coast stoop rapping about Big Macs and fries. The Cadillac commercials with the group of black men using the latest slang while talking to each other- while riding in a pimped out Escalade.

I get they want to appeal to minorities, but these companies need to realize that we do regular stuff, just like white people!!!! You don’t have to have soul music in the background, or people doing ‘URBAN’ things for us to relate! To prove it, That commercial that you have with a white family, doing stuff that the average family does...and replace them with a black family... Don’t add any rap music, or a basketball player making a dunk in the magical hoop in the parking lot. No breakdancing competition or little kid coming to the dinner table listening to the cha cha slide ( which was hilarious, but it didn't matter what race the family was, it was funny)....and it will still register with the black community.

I get so sick of advertisers thinking we only respond to shucking and jiving. We do regular stuff, just like the rest of the people in this country...and not that people don’t relate to some of these commercials, some people do- but many of ‘us’ are sick of them. Just add a black or hispanic or asian family to a commercial without all the nonsense.

I never usually tackle any topics regarding race or different cultures in my blog. Not because I'm afraid to, I just don’t. That’s not what my blog is really about, but every now and then, I just have to comment on things that bother me.

And with that, I leave you with one final comment- Lenny Williams playing in the background is not going to make buy a Chrysler 300!

1 comment:

  1. LMAOOOOO!!!! I have a friend that works in advertising and they have an "urban" division for most advertising and the folks behind the copywriting and advertising for the urban audience are black smh!!! I don't know why we even need an urban advertising division for the simple fact a lot of don't dance whilst eating (well i do sometimes...only if it's really good lol). I feel your pain girl. Even the commercials that have black folks in them have use slang and give it more flavor. Like I know we're colorful sometimes but like you said we do regular stuff like EVERYBODY else.

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Thanks!!!