In class my professor explained to us that commercials and ads have a tendency to stereotype on group of people or another. Even though there statement can be true does not mean it is true for everyone hence it can become offensive at any given time. After watching the television for a while I noticed that my professor was right. There were many ads/commercials that stereotyped women, men, children, elderly, age groups, etc. Some of these ads came off as very offensive to whatever group they were targeting. I also detected that certain channels showed certain commercials. Some channels had more risky commercials than others for example Bravo vs. BET.
While i was watching Spike TV, I caught a couple commercials that were stereotyping a certain group of people. One commercial ad was Lipozene, a diet pill that may help you lose weight. During the commercials that stated that if you had kids, was of a certain age range and more were you more likely to be overweight as well as it was probably harder for you to lose any body fat and that use should use Lipozene. This pill will get your body to were it needs to be. There are plenty of people with kids who aren't overweight and have no problem losing any pounds. It is disrespectful to say if you have or live a certain life style, that you will end up overweight and that you need diet pills to help you. Another commercial ad on Spike was Hanes underwear for men. Here they had Cuba Gooding Jr. put on some boxers that was given to him as a gift from Michael Jordan. While trying to thank him, they had all these Caucasian women stop what they ere doing, turn around and stair while he shouted out "I'm wearing your underwear!" to Michael Jordan. This ad projects that black men share underwear, and are homosexuals. All black men are not homosexuals nor do they all if any share underwear. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't laugh but this commercial was offensive and was stereotyping a black men or all men in general.
As I changed the channel to Bravo, I saw the commercial for Real Housewives of NY. the commercial showed them all acting childish, immature, crazy moms and more. They were all upper class white women. The commercial captured saying we all have great lives and this is who we are. Not all upper class housewives act crazy, foolish, party all day, waist money just because, and try to compete with their teen age daughters and thinks its cute or funny to wear provocative clothes around their sons friends.
After watching that show I turned to BET. Here were plenty of RED BULL commercials and commercials geared to minorities. One commercial was the AIDS commercial that had two young black females texting to one another about their getting tested. The commercial was aired in a all black neighborhood both females were dressed older than what they looked. One of the text said, "R U GOOD?" To black women this is a stereotype that we all live in the "hood", dress a certain way and have to get tested and most of the time we end up with AIDS. Another commercial was a RED BULL were the had two cartoon college students, the male needed to study for a biology/chemistry final while his girlfriend was trying to get close in "biology terms"(making out and what comes next....). She makes a comment that states who needs to study biology/chemistry for school while there is chemistry between the to of us. At the end of the commercial they say "DRINK RED BULL IT WILL GIVE YOU ENERGY TO DO ANYTHING". His drinks the RED BULL and they start kissing. Again this is a funny commercial but it is stereotyping college students especially those in a relationship. It shows that they are not interested in studying but studying each other which is not always true.
~When you look at a commercial check what the message is saying it sometimes is hidden while others it is not. You will be surprised how often a commercial uses stereotypes to get their message across.How would you feel if you were one of those people or groups being stereotyped?
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4 comments:
I'm going to have to disagree with your comments regarding the Haines commercial.
The stereotypes portrayed are probably more along the lines of an average man's homophobia as opposed to black men as sharing underwear. It's a comical commercial. of course, and I get a chuckle, because of how the fans misinterpret what Cuba is saying.
Now that you mention it, many commercials regarding STD's (especially AIDS) tend to target blacks. Even though statistics prove that blacks are the majority who are infected, it does not mean that they are the only ones.
I wanted to agree with your comments on the portrayal of upper class women on "Real Housewives of NY."
I have some family member who never miss an episode of "Real Housewives of The OC."
In my opinion, it's a disgrace how immature and careless these women act on TV, and I wonder if it's all for show.
The commercials depict a society where there's "no rules".. and I would assume other women of their societal class would feel disrespected.
I know there's typical rich, high-society women stereotypes, but these shows in general are ridiculous and definitely (in my opinion) not worth watching!
The commercial about the black women being tested for HIV is a very important one and the fact that you pointed out the vernacular in the commercial was interesting. As if all black people talk like that and don't live in nic neighborhoods. That is a definited stereotype in the media.
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