Monday, October 21, 2013

No Mo White People In Marketing















Funny thing I noticed when I was in Jamaica.

Their advertisements had more white people than ours (US) did.

I found this odd because I was (as far as I could tell) the only white boy to leave the plantation (aka - the resort) and take a 7 mile run into the city (Montego Bay) and explore it a bit.

I noticed many things.

Like the Jamaican version of Wal-Mart near the Catherine Hall neighborhood.  Very efficient.  Very effective.  And despite the guards, that place has improved standards of living in the area by at least 10%. 

Or the twin boys who saw me and started yelling "white man!  white man!"  until I had to explain to their older brother/father that I wanted to see Jamaica, not America's version of it. 

Or the taxi cabs that kept pulling over, honking their horns, thinking I was lost because I was a white man...even though I had running shoes...a running shirt...and I was...um...running.

But what stuck with me the most was the number of white people on their advertisements.  Be it TV, the billboards, or what have you, there were nothing but white people.  But far as my eye could see, I was the only white guy around.  Matter of fact, I can guarantee you I was the only white guy around.  Ergo, why i found it a bit insulting to the locals that they had to suffer advertisements and billboards that foisted white people down their throats.

Ergo why me and some people and the Catherine Hall residents may have something in common.

We're sick of the powers that be forcing diversity down our throats.

Go north 2,000 miles and I'm sick of Target's shit where they force minority faces in my face.  This is no slander nor slight against my non-white brothers or sisters, but a disgust as to how they condescendingly placate them to eek out that extra 3% market share while ignoring their real market.  I look at the advertisements and it's all minorities. But I look at the shoppers at Target and they're all wonderbread white.

Yeah, Target, we got it!

All of us got the freaking memo passed on since the early freaking 90's.

There are non-white people in our mix.  We like 'em.  We hang out with 'em.  Sometimes we try to outdo each other in glorious rhetorical battle as we recite our "worst racist jokes" whilst doing shots of Jack Daniels bringing us closer together than your CSR department ever will.

Now can you stop it with the mixed-raced 14 year old pedophile-inciting models while I'm trying to pick up a freaking belt???

But, no, I know.  Your corporate MBA executive types have nothing left up their sleeves.  Instead of innovation, creativity, and lower prices that would actually help all colors of all people, we need to keep harping on this baby boomer, leftist bullshit of "diversity" and "corporate social repsonsibility" and "unicorns" and "job-farting half-white half-black presidents."

Good thing the 1990's education system brainwashed all those now guilt-ridden, middle aged, suburbanite white women into buying shit at your stores just because you showcase minorities as 90% of your models.  Because it sure as hell ain't fooling the non-white folk.

Cripes.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My gripe is preppy fashion ads with the token afro black guy.

Blinding Buddha said...

I can relate with you Aaron i have traveled to areas in the caribbean and you always see either a white or a light brown person in the ads everywhere including on TV. Its a normal thing that no one really gets all bent out of shape about since they are too busy trying to make a living.
Unfortunately here in the US too many people have too much time on their hands to make others believe in the the "Diversity" rhetoric. For me its just a waste of time as i do not care about "Diversity" what i do care about is making a living for me and my family so they do not have to do without.
You can have your "Diveristy" all i want for you to do is to stop taxing my money and giving it to parasites!

Great Post!

CelticTigerDad said...

It's kind of like that in China. So many white faces on the billboard and storefront ads. There's for sure no "diversity" intent though. I think they just find whites as a little exotic.

Anonymous said...

The self-emergent parody from too many colored faces in advertising is bizarre. If you watch a sequence of TV commercials you would think blacks buy everything, run everything, are all the doctors and dentists, sell everything, and fix everything. Plus black families and their homes are like Norman Rockwell paintings. The same kindly, bespeckled black pharmacist apparently also works for 3 different grocery chains in my town.The only place you won't find blacks : working at advertising agencies, though you will likely see happy, self-actualized blacks on the Career Opportunities page of their website.