was encouraged about America becoming more open and welcoming to POC and bi-racial families when he said this at his Wisconsin townhall meeting:
"I'm going to say something that's going to get me in trouble...think about it, if you want to know where the American public is, look at the money being spent on advertising. Did you ever 5 years ago think every second or third ad out of 5 or 6 would be biracial couples?"
But not all Americans see that as progress and an acknowledgement of the reality of our American landscape. There are Americans out there who resent seeing bi-racial, POC, or LGBTQ in tv ads. It irritates them, and it makes them cynical about the reasons this particular demographic is represented at all.
Those folks are mostly right wingers (Trumpers) who begrudge having to share their representation and presence (white) in American culture with other people. They don't understand why, and they don't like it.
I'll share what those people are saying to each other about this phenomenon President Biden spoke of.
I visit right wing blogs to read what they're saying. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact, it's better than reading a distillation of their thinking in other media. I find it fascinating to read how they think and feel about cultural changes.
Here they are. In their own words:
bocopro: "Here’s the problem: Most of the commercials I see on TV today show either (1) black people, (2) mixed-race couples, (3) mixed-race children, (4) gay or lesbian couples, (5) white males who are morons, or (6) women, very often black, in charge of things.
These days it’s truly rare to see white couples with white children in commercials, and white males are generally depicted as arrogant, clueless, troublemaking, rudderless knuckledraggers, if not just plain sissies. It’s as if mass-media execs want the world to believe that at least half the US population is African or African mixed with something else and to be white is to be out of touch with reality.
Reality is that the US is less than 14% African and nearly 16% Latino with somewhere close to 7% Asian including everything from Tehran to Tokyo and Mumbai to Moscow. . . which means, of course, that the US population is STILL fairly near 66% white European, ancestrally speaking.
As for the gays, lesbians, trannies, and so on, the entire LGBT fragment of US population is somewhere around 4.5%, despite the fact that when asked, most people assume it to be well over 20%.
So what’s the deal? Are we being deliberately misled – AGAIN – by the media as we’ve been on the “pandemic” and Russia! Russia! Russia! collusion and racism and voter fraud and “believe all women who claim sexual abuse”?
If so, what’s the goal? How will we be better off with African lesbians running the show for everybody?
And if old white men truly ARE the source of all our problems, then why did we hire one as CEO again, ignoring a young gay guy, a woman who claims native ancestry, and a dark-skinned mixed-race female?”
kidme37:
Marketing. When enough people believe something, no matter how absurd, lots of companies hop on so as to not alienate the idiot perceived consumers of their product. Somehow magically overnight, their product contributes to the fight (or support) of the latest pile of nonsense because the kids and way too many adults all believe the crap.
This is how moronic concepts grow into monsters.
Gluten Free !
Organic !
Supports Black People !
Cage Free!
Combats Toenail Fungus !
We Like Homos !
And this:
GeeeZ: "I don’t mind seeing a HUGELY disproportionate amount of minorities on TV Ads (and not just ads, but Hallmark films, QVC, and other places I wouldn’t have expected it), but DID ADVERTISERS GET A MEMO? And could we see it?
They say our KIDS are being mind controlled in schools……….Of course they are. But they’re not the only ones."
This discussion found on Quora would help the folks quoted above to better understand why POC and other minorities are becoming more visible in television ads:
Q: Why are there so many Black people in commercials? They’re 12% of the population but seem to be in 90% of commercials.
A: Lacking a citation to affirm your perception (Black people seem to appear in 90% of commercials), I am going to just address why the casting of ads has changed from all-white actors to actors of many races and cultures in the United States.
Advertising has two primary goals:
To sell products.
To make potential customers think of a product or brand first when they need that product. (This is called “branding.”)
Society has become more integrated, with new immigrants and new cultures changing the demographic mix of advertising audiences. Businesses spend millions researching their customers, with a specific goal of growing their customer base. They are constantly seeking new customers and ways to expand their markets. That means as society changes, advertising changes to take advantage of new markets and growing customer opportunities.
There has been a change in brand marketing in recent years, with the broader acceptance of LGBTQ people, the arrival of new immigrant groups, and an awareness that younger Americans in particular are more accepting of interracial and multicultural lifestyles. Messaging has changed to ensure marketing is acceptable to these desirable younger audiences.
Mass advertising (TV, radio, and print ads) must reach as many people and audiences as possible, because ads are costly to create and place.
Companies aim their ads broadly to reflect as many people as they can in their ads. The idea is that if you see people in ads who look like you, you will be more receptive to the ad message, and more easily perceive the product or service on offer as possibly of value to you.
Yes, there is a certain amount of “virtue-signalling” in ads, as companies and ad agencies try to reflect the aims and beliefs of more activist young people and new communities. This can sometimes be effective, but more often just annoys all demographic groups because it is so blatantly insincere.
Companies and ad agencies both suffer from a dearth of diversity within their own organizations, which has often led to really bad ads with messaging that is off-tone and even offensive. But they keep trying it.
If the ads you see seem heavily slanted toward a demographic group that does not look exactly like you, it may simply be that research has shown the programming you are watching has a large audience of Black viewers the advertiser is trying to reach. America is changing. Advertising reflects those changes.
