My completely unsupported prediction is that marketing departments everywhere are henceforth going to be on a permanent quest for the holy grail of the “Seuss Cancel”.
That is: Find a marketing change you can make to the product that will simultaneously cause the “woke” consumers to perceive the new version as more diverse or equitable, while inspiring the “anti-woke” consumers to ramp up their purchases of something else in your product line as a gesture to standing up for tradition.
I think that’s going to be a challenging needle to thread. I don’t know that the original “Seuss Cancel” would have worked so well if there hadn’t been so many consumers somewhat unclear on who exactly was doing the “canceling”, and why.
Green Eggs and Ham, which is not one of the six Dr. Seuss books that is going to cease publication, became (again) a major talking point for everybody’s favorite idiot of a senator, Ted Cruz, who is raising money by signing copies of that book for a minimum $60 donation to his campaign. Apparently, he’s raised $125,000 in just 24 hours, proving once and for all, to my satisfaction, that a fool and his money are soon parted.
Nike sort of found it with the Colin Kaepernick endorsement. Get the right wingers to burn stuff they already paid for and get lots of free publicity on the nightly news. Simultaneously get the “woke” crowd to fork out big bucks for their products because they “support Colin” and coincidentally ignore all the bad press concerning their sweatshops paying $1.25 per day for shoes that sell for over $100 a pair and refusing to allow outside inspectors in their factories.
“Believe in something” my ass. You know Nike did a shit-ton of focus groups and market research and determined that they’d bring in more money from the pro-Kaepernick crowd than they would lose from the anti. Otherwise the contract would have never happened.
Furious conservatives denouncing the decision (while buying up and flaunting all the Betsy Ross flag sneakers they could find) gave Nike millions of dollars of free publicity; liberals were sent a positive message about Nike’s anti-racist “principles”; and avid collectors bid up prices on the sneakers to thousands of dollars, ensuring that they would have lasting “rarity” cachet.
Nike’s marketing department earned their bonus that year, for sure.
There’s a hbomberguy video on so called “woke brands.” It basically agrees with what’s been said, that companies have found that the outrage over taking “woke” positions turns out to be good advertising. He does place the beginning with Keurig pulling advertising from Sean Hannity as the starting point, though Nike may have been the first to do it intentionally.
(sorrry for the semi-zombie - the Discourse suggested topics doesn’t seem to screen by date)
Recognition general racist stereotypes and characterizations of individuals that are racist in a societal context is because Americans are more racist than Australians? I think there’s plenty of anecdotes out there regarding shameless racism in Australia. In America we are working on developing shame. I expect there are plenty of Australians trying to work on that too.
Americans see everything through a prism of race that is distinctly American. Australians don’t see everything through a prism of race, and when looking through a prism of race, don’t use the American prism.
Of course, not being familiar with Australia, you have no idea at all about the forms of Australian racism, and being American, you (1) think that American racism is the natural form, and (2) are blind to the national characteristics of American racism.
Being a migrant, an expatriate, and an outsider, I am above such limitations on both the Australian and the American side.
Because the mainstream society hasn’t yet decided to care about their own racism-steeped society at the same level that Americans have. In other words, Australia is still at a stage that America was in decades ago.
I find that claim dubious. I don’t see Australian works making racist caricatures, either. You mean to tell me that, if you made a comical version of Aboriginal person that clearly used a style to mock how “backwards” you think they are, that there would be no objection?
Yes, the US does sometimes forget that sometimes that some associations are cultural, like the fried chicken thing. Not every culture has the same history of using something for racism. But the idea that you shouldn’t use goofy, mocking depictions of people of races you’ve previously discriminated against seems pretty universal.
I’d also point out that one of our posters who comments a lot of race is in fact Australian. But he’s not white. That may actually be the difference on whether you see things through a racial lens.
Surely, out of all the intentionally offensive caricatures and fake accents on Pacific Heat, at least ragging on New Zealanders had to be a home-grown prejudice?
I just learned that “Batman” has a racist history in Australia. Good for them, I guess, that they are replacing offensive names, but it is a shame that it needs to happen. It a better world, everywhere would be named “Batman”. Who doesn’t want to say “I live in the Division of Batman*”?
*(My full address? 1337 Voltron Road, Ninjatown, Division of Batman.)
My daughter is a youth librarian and is uber-attentive to potential offensive material. When we were discussing Seuss, she commented that the Cat in the Hat has been objected to because the cat resembles a minstrel performer, entertaining the white folk.
IMO, that is taking it a tad far (yes, I’ve read the articles.) Bye bye Mickey, Bugs, and who knows what else.
Heck, the December 1954 issue of Batman featured a story entitle “The Mystery of the Four Batmen” in which there are four Batmen aboard a ship.
The four “Batmen” are a Baseball player, a chiropterologist (a guy who stidies bats), a ceramicist (the clay balls are called “bats”), and a fourth “Batman”
The fourth “Batman” turns out to be a weight – the batman – Batman (unit) - Wikipedia . This alone shows that the Turkish statement is incorrect – the name is both a city and a unit of weight in Turkey
Actually, there’s another “batman” that wasn’t included in the story, since it’s not familiar to Americans, although it is in the UK –
the servant of a commissioned officer – Batman (military) - Wikipedia
Although I understand that, at one point, Alfred concedes that he’s “Batman’s batman”
The story was written by sf author and frequent DC storysmith Edmond Hamilton, who obviously wasn’t familiar with the UK usage.
