The "token" black women in commercials. |
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a3b3i
Junior Executive Joined: 22 Jun 2009 Status: Offline Points: 74 |
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Posted: 02 May 2011 at 3:36am |
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I find this really annoying.
In almost EVERY commercial geared towards women (cleaning products, chocolate, yogurt, tampons, headache medicine, weight loss programs, diet foods, cooking products), there is almost always one token black woman, and SHE ALWAYS LOOKS THE SAME.
I always wonder if this annoys black women, and I know it would probably annoy me if I were black. sh*t, it annoys me already.
This woman is ALWAYS light-skinned, and she ALWAYS has a light-brown shorter Afro hairstyle. She's always just teetering on the edge of "white". She's always sitting around the dinner table with her three white girlfriends or hanging out at the beach with them eating yogurt, and she always just looks like an ultra-tan white lady with a poofier hairdo.
Because most African American women that I personally know are either medium-skinned or dark-skinned, it seems like blatant racism to me, and they NEVER have commercial actresses with women of this skin type. Has anyone else noticed this?? And if you haven't, just look out for it next time.
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63905 |
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Sometimes they're just a little sassy.
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Hezadancer
Junior Executive Joined: 06 May 2008 Location: Around Status: Offline Points: 3770 |
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Except for the Pine Sol lady. She was pretty dark, heavy, AND she had a gap tooth. That's like 3 strikes in the adverting world. I think they're trying so hard not to be racist that they're pandering to blacks with her character.
"That's the power of Pine Sol BABY" You know what they really wanted her to say if they could... "Oh Lawdy dat Pine Sol!" |
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It's ok, I'm in marketing!
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63905 |
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I used to know her. Diane Amos, stand-up comedian. Nice girl.
According to one article I read, she said that someone like her is more believable as someone who might use Pine-Sol, than someone like Jennifer Lopez would be. She's had the Pine-Sol job for 18 years now.
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Hootman
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Ohio Status: Offline Points: 8151 |
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Yeah, I'd have trouble with JLo down on the floor scrubbing away....
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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Heck, given permission, *I'd* get behind her and, in a proper 'Wolfy-Style-Way', support her 'effort'...
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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belc0011
Junior Executive Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Status: Offline Points: 337 |
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YES!!!! I have absolutely noticed this!! The most recent one is the annoying commercial where the woman speaks with the ridiculous french accent and the black woman says she only spent X number of dollars on dresses for her girls, "parle vous good deal?" She's the exact stereotype you're talking about, and you're right...it seems like every commercial has at least one black woman who fits the parameters you're talking about. Very annoying!
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Bring me the head of a pig, and a goblet of something cool and refreshing
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Thor
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Isn't this a promo for a movie? I forget the name, but the premise seems to be of a poor or average black family marrying into a real yuppie black family. The woman speaking French is also black.
Looks like it might be funny. "Poor meets rich" movies sometimes are.
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Malcolm Reynolds
Junior Executive Joined: 08 Dec 2009 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 217 |
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I posted not too long ago about the racism going on in advertising (specifically McDs). It's not just women either, the same thing happens in ads geared towards males.
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"If you make your software idiot proof, nature will make a better idiot."
-Me |
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Thor
Revolutionary Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Rockaway, NJ Status: Offline Points: 63905 |
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I think advertisers generally go out of their way to portray blacks positively. Rarely, do you see a black person in the role of the villain or the buffoon or the ignorant. One commercial that comes to mind is the one that shows the black dry-cleaner owner looking forlornly at his white employee who's hanging/thrashing about from the revolving hanger thing behind him.
And you'll never see a black guy in the role of a criminal (as in those alarm system ads). The closest I've seen is the commercial with the black guy running with a woman's purse. Turns out he was only trying to return it to her after she left it behind at a cafe. I think that one was a PSA of some sort.
It just seems to me that advertisers are verrry careful about which color plays which role in their commercials. They try to appear color-blind when, in reality, it's just the opposite. Even that "forgotten purse" commercial comes in two versions. There's a version with a white teenager as the hero, though I've never seen it aired. Basically, it's the same commercial, just with different "colors" playing the role of the good guy.
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ambrosia
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No, it's actually a commercial....for Burlington Coat Factory, I believe.
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Thor
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Gotcha.
The movie I was thinking of is called Jumping the Broom (and the longer Youtube trailer for it makes it seem more like a romantic comedy than an actual funny comedy, as the commercial promo makes it seem).
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Jimbo
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The one that irks me is the Popeyes Cajun Chicken commercials.
The lady is slightly heavy set, & light skinned but what gets me is the way they have her talking.
Not quite "look-a here, honey chile" but almost.
You can tell by her voice that it's just a put-on & she probably doesn't talk that way in real life.
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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Thor
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We had a black commercial actress as a member of CIH for awhile. Here's one of her commercials. There are others with her on Youtube.
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ambrosia
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There is another black commercial actress who I see in SO many commercials that have to do with teeth. I'll go looking for video, because the *exact* products are escaping my mind right now. I think one is a whitening strips commercial because I remember her saying "and this is my sweet smile"....but anyway, then she showed up in some toothpaste commercial, then a dentures one....and THEN I saw her in a printed poster ad for dentures at Allcare Dental about a year ago!
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belc0011
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No, it's from a Burlington Coat Factory commercial and is most definitely NOT funny, trust me.
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Bring me the head of a pig, and a goblet of something cool and refreshing
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NuJerzeeGal
Commercial Hater Joined: 08 May 2011 Status: Offline Points: 15 |
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I may be a little late to the party, but speaking as a medium toned Black woman, who wears her hair long I have to say, yes I do find it very annoying. I get that the company doesn't want to seem racist but the fact that she is always very light makes it in my opinion racist.
We come in various shades with numerous hair types, heaven forbid we get to see dare I say two different types represented in the same ad. Hell, I'd rather see no token then the same overused "poofier hairdo" (sorry but that cracked me up...I had to use it) light lady.
There are a few commercials featuring darker toned women but they are few and far between.
By the way, I thought only Blacks were bothered by this as it comes up in conversations at times. Guess I learned something new today
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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Maybe, as an ol'IrishWolf, I may not be the best to speak on this.
I suspect the marketing ploy leans toward the 'well-to-do', 'median/middle income' average folk of colour; probably no ill intentions of any sort by the commercial creators; may be more our perception.
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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Mommacita
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She's very pretty! |
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musicman
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I've watched African American TV shows that have a token white guy in them too.
He is usually portrayed as really dumb. |
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Thor
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That's another thing I like about Everybody Hates Chris. Neither the whites nor the blacks are portrayed as cartoonish (except for a few minor characters). The show transcends race, while not ignoring it either.
The main white person in the show, in fact, is based upon a childhood friend of Chris'---and he's not a buffoon.
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Synesthesia
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I did like that show, except the punitiveness, but other than that it was very good.
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Tiz
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How come no "token" Hispanic people in commercials?
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PaWolf
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To be a 'token', you have to come from a minority group, like White peeps.
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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athomas917
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Hispanics get it the worst. They don't even bother to use humans for their roles. |
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