Actually, I can think of a specific example that is somewhat making a half-hearted attempt at breaking the dumb white guy/harpy wife/ smart alec kid mold.
It’s the ad for some kind of cell phone/blackberry. A white woman and a black man, both dressed in similar business attire carrying satchels enter and sit in chairs back-to-back in a hotel lobby. The objective for each is to carry out some business transaction via the blackberry, and the white woman completes her task first. She gets up and leaves. So you think, hmmm… the black guy is made out to be the loser of the scenario. But he’s only the quasi-loser. Then the real loser shows up. The white guy bellhop carrying trays of food who trips over the black businessman’s feet and sprawls face first onto the floor. Food everywhere. Huge mess. White moron’s fault.
No, because the current complexion of sub-Saharan Africans does not necessarily indicate the complexion of original humans somewhere else on that vast continent 200,000 years ago.
End of hijack
Too much tunnel vision in this thread for me to address anything on topic right now.
Theseouttashut a couple of you up. I couldn’t find that H&R block “I got people” ad with the black husband and wife, but you’ve all seen it (she’s ready to go into harpy mode when she finds their bills in the trash, but he coolly shuts her up without ever even turning his attention to her by explaining that he bought whatever H&R is selling). I also that mobile ad where the black character ends up “losing his drawers” to a dog by the end, but I can’t remember who it was for (Boost? Amp’d?) Then there was that famous Burger King one where the black character was in first-class on a plane and thus acted inappropriately. Oh, and of course there was “You better don’t”…have a made my point yet?
I’m not too sure what you’re saying, pizzabrat, but I just wanted to say that that is my currently most hated commercial. The woman has a perfectly valid concern about finding all the bills in the trash, and all dickhead has to say is, “I got people.” As if that actually means something. He reminds me of my ex-husband.
Well that (hilariously) proves my point - it’s the farthest thing from a “stupid white man” commercial. You’re not supposed to hate the husband; he’s the one who saved the day. The wife was wrong for ever questioning his authority.
Those “men of the square table” commercials are multiracial.
These commercials are trying to be funny and are usually trying to appeal to men (of whatever race) by playing on simplified memes of male bonding and attitudes. They might be dumb, but they’re not insidious or racist. White men are not a persecuted minority. There’s nothing more laughable than white guys trying to play the victim card.
His authority??? What authority? She just asked why something important was in the trash, and he couldn’t be bothered to say something sensible, like, “Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of it”?
His authority as the husband, in charge of the financial matters. If he put them in the trash, that’s where they belong and the only explanation she gets is a tacit “Why should it matter to you?”. She’s fine with that and puts the bills right back into the trash.
Point is, hard-line gender roles are exploited in a potentially offensive fashion in both directions, depending on what’s being sold. Besides, I think there’s one that goes in the opposite direction with a white couple and a wife needling the husband for buying a poorly supported tax software package instead of using an actual service (though I may be remembering incorrectly - it’s really vague).
EDIT: Also, “Don’t Worry - I’ve Taken Care of It!” isn’t the slogan that they’re trying to shove down our throats.
I hate the one in which the wife pulls into the driveway in the mini van (which is empty). Husband, noticing the lack of bags, says, “I thought you went shopping!” Wife responds that she didn’t, husband walks away, at which point she so sneakily unhatches the hidden compartment in the floor of the van where she, gasp!, pulls out her bags from the mall.
Then there’s the recent one with the wife talking to the Home Tax CD box, like a person, asking for tax advice, because her husband didn’t do them correctly online.
Yeah, that’s it. There’s one that even I’d have to agree about it being offensive. Why did she have to be so gleefully belittling? And what product was it for? Not H&R Block, was it? They make the most popular tax software, so it had to be a competitor.
Just saw a commercial for “Gain” detergent that’s of some relevance. Two men; one white, one black, both wearing long-sleeved shirts, meet two Japanese men, apparently as a prelude to some kind of business relationship. The Japanese bow and the Americans, seeking to make a good impression, follow suit. The Japanese man nearest the white guy comments to his associate (in Japanese, with subtitles) that the white guy’s shirt smells like mandarin oranges and lime or something else appealing) and he lightly embraces the white guy to get a better whiff. The black guy, apparently assuming this is part of the greeting ritual, lightly hugs the second Japanese man, leading to a moment of general discomfort for all concerned.
Actually, you see stupid white guys in car commercials a LOT. Usually the “other guy” who DIDN’T buy the car being sold in the commercial. Noteworthy examples are the hillarious “Unpimp Ze Auto” commercials from Vee-Dub (German Engineering in the HAAUUUUSSSS)
Of course, that commercial not only made fun of stupid white 20-something American males, but also made fun of smart German engineers and German women.
Anybody see the cream cheese commercial with the smart brunette angel and the dumb blonde angel with an attention span shorter than the commercials?
I have two lines of thought about the whole thing.
I don’t think that it’s civil or good to make fun of people based on race or sex, regardless of whether those races or sexes are historically oppressive and dominant ones. I’m not trying to play the victim card here - but there is absolutely nothing that makes me want to buy a product less than seeing an advertisement that is cruelly making fun of someone, me included.
I think that using obviously aggressive and confrontational humor in advertising is really low. There are enough commercials that are either nonhumorous or don’t use racist, sexist humor that it shouldn’t be necessary to keep doing this.
I hate that shit, too. My husband and I share all of our money; if I go blow hundreds of dollars and hide it from him, I’m hurting both of us and our relationship. If you are foolish enough to get your ideas about relationships from television commercials, you’d get an awfully skewed idea about what loving relationships should be like. On the other hand, if you see something repeatedly, day after day, chances are you will start to think that what you’re seeing is the norm.
I think it was H&R Block, and “we’ve got people”. So, use their people, but even if you use their software, it has audit protection where their people will defend you.
Two of the telephone ones bug me:
The white “idiot-dad” texting his smarter-than-thou kids at the dinner table and the wife “Give it to me.” I certainly play with new gadgets (it’s fun) and don’t need my partner treating me like that.
“What did you get for Christmas? <slick new telephones> And what did Dad get? <Aftershave> No. Dad got hosed.” Man, buy your own new telephone, damn. Of course he was black so it doesn’t fit the OP.
But then there’s idiot-dad who’s funny:
Younger brother puts older sis’s friends on his network <Dad make him stop!> Dad: Hey, you need to get uglier friends.
Savannah, Georgia - population 128,500 - and you’re telling me nobody in the entire city has told a joke about black people (or Mexicans or Asians or women) in recent memory? Because when you say “The white guy is ALWAYS the butt of the joke” (the capitalization being yours) I’m going to assume you meant what you wrote.
As others have pointed out and given examples of, there are numerous television commercials that make fun of people who aren’t white men. But apparently you’ve never seen these. Or maybe you only notice and get offended by derogatory humor when you think it’s being directed at you.
I didn’t say there weren’t people in my city who might make a racist joke. I bet people in your illustrious city make them, too. But that isn’t the issue being discussed. Don’t act all pious and holier-than-thou. You’re attacking me and passing jdgement because I am from the South and you’re assuming I am racist because I happen to agree with the OP, as a few others, do too. Why don’t you call out the others who agreed with the OP’s observation as well? You saw my locale and went into some kind of attack mode. Sorry if you have issues with Southerners, but those are your issues, not mine.
Yes, I can see that there are other examples of cmmercials, I am not ignoring that, but I still feel there is a predominance of “stupid white guy” commercials.
The Spanish commercial for that cellphone company has the family traveling in a van. The teen daughter is on the phone, and the preteen son remarks that a boy, let’s call him Armando, is on her “faves” network:
Dad: Hand it over. (looks at faves list on phone) Who’s this Armando?
Daughter: … (hands cash to Son)
Son: Armando’s… (receives cash) …a real nice guy! Yup! Great person to know!
