A certain incomprehension of reality seems to be poking its head around the curtains here. Sure, people mouthing off because Sainsbury’s uses a black family in a Christmas ad seems a little odd. They’re a little limited as to who they can use as lining up those skin colours likely to be Muslim or Hindu doesn’t quite make the point either.
But our lady here seems not to understand what ads are nor why they’re made:
Apparently, for some, a black family is not worthy of a Christmas advert.
It’s not about worth of value. Advertising is about selling stuff to people. That’s the aim, point, justification of the budget and the whole of the thing.
Sure, there are different ways of doing this. One can attempt to create some lovely warmth by pointing out that we’re just like you are so give us your money. That in itself can go either way, we’re white like you so cash! or we’re woke like you so cash!
The supermarket’s decision to feature a family who just so happen to be black embraces the plurality of 21st-century Britishness. Being both black and British hasn’t suddenly become incompatible. Rather, the discomfort many feel at being confronted with that reality is part of an issue that has been bubbling under the surface for decades: the myth that no racism exists in the UK.
No, rather, the puzzle is, which method is Sainsbury’s trying to use when they feature a 3% of the population group in their major advertising campaign of the year?
The problem is not that Sainsbury’s does it. The problem is that everybody does it. It is multi-culturalism being thrust down the throats of the traditional indigenous population. It is unwelcome to some of us, myself included, living thirty-some miles from central London and rarely seeing a black or brown face. It is intrusive and would only be working if its intent were to piss off most of the population. No, I don’t mind black folks. I mind being manipulated by ad execs so they can feel good about themselves and superior to me.
Judging by adverts and the BBC, most of Britain is now mixed race. In particular, there is a tribe of skinny snarly-smiling girls with big ringletty hair who seem to have taken over the entire country.
Perhaps that’s where the young lady I saw pictured on the side of a bus stop came from. Since the advertisement was for Body Mod, I did wonder how they could transform a white haired old white man like me into someone like that.
I’ve been keeping a specific eye on my BT email log-in page since about June (when BLM kicked off). Since that point the people portrayed on it have been universally black. For a couple of months it was a black woman, since then its been a black man. As far as BT are concerned the UK is an African country. Not a hint that anyone else might live here.
Either their skin colour doesn’t matter, Britain is a multicultural place and you can recognise yourself in everyone.
Or it’s absolutely essential that you see someone who looks like you in an advert, otherwise you’re being persecuted.
It can’t be both, yet both is what’s being argued here.
Quite. Can’t these people just be happy? There’s going to be the odd racist on Twitter but the fact Sainsbury’s are putting a black family up tells you that very, very few people will shop elsewhere because of it. Talk to sikhs I know and yes, they still get racism, but it’s nothing like what it was 30 years ago. We’ve reached the point in cinema where there are large movies where the lead is a black guy, and the skin colour is irrelevant. 30 years ago, a studio wouldn’t have backed a film as big as Tenet with a… Read more »
You need to take a look at American TV. One can go hours without seeing a white person in an advertisement. There are situations presented which are laugh out loud ludicrous. Occasionally they’ll insert a metro-feminine white guy into a multiracial situation for balance.
According to Hollywood. Nobody in the US Army above lootenant is White. There are no White male, judges, police chiefs, scientists, or people high status jobs.
Just so happen to be…
A complete accident then. Nobody noticed until after filming then the ad went out and the folk at Sainsbury’s said,’ Well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs we inadvertently embraced the plurality of 21st Century Britishness.
The advert is just weird – even the Cosby show from 30 years ago included actors who were clearly 25% or more non-black. Sainsbury’s aren’t trying to be realistic – the probability of a not 100% black boyfriend or girlfriend approaches 1 for any large family. And they’re not trying to caricature. So what is their thinking as to how to gain market share. It’s a fun advert with a cool central character, I’ll give them that. What will be troubling is that sales will dip compared to the oppo imv, and the public will be blamed for being filth… Read more »
It’s a kind of back-handed compliment, though, isn’t it? It’s saying in effect that white viewers are tolerant and understanding enough to recognise that an Asian or Black person in an advertisement is meant to represent and stand in for all people. But it implies that Asian and Black people are not as broad-minded and enlightened, and wouldn’t be able to recognise the common humanity in a white actor.
It’s like those adverts somebody put out a few years ago “This is what Britain looks like”. 99% of population looks out of window. Like **** it does.
A small proportion may have thought a bit further to: That may be what That London looks like, but it sure as hell isn’t what *BRITAIN* looks like.
Totally unscientific observation, but here in the U.S. a number of people I know have noticed that it seems like TV ads seem to have dramatically increased the # of black actors. Nobody really cares who’s extra happy now that they’re using a different tampon, but the ratio seems to have changed so dramatically that it jumps out at you. We’re not talking about appropriate representation of POC, we’re talking about dramatic over-representation. Happily, I’m not a white actor, so it’s not my job being affected. Presumably, this is in line with several black film directors who stated months back… Read more »
Didn’t one of the networks recently announce a 50% quota for hiring nonwhites?
Seconding “aaa” above, it may be that blacks play by our rules, including cultural rules, which would mean that race is unremarkable–as it is, when they do. Or it may be that we are “multicultural,” which would mean that an ad featuring black actors might not be something that should persuade white people. Which is it?
I’d also note that, if the state of racism in the U.K. is a few people (a few dozen?, a few hundred?) whining online about an ad it’s time to move on. Sainsbury’s knows their market and is extremely careful about their brand identity & they went with this ad. Ergo, they figure if it annoys a few people it’ll be accepted (embraced?) by the vast majority.
As in the U.S. it’s at the point that you have to search really hard to find racism and lower the bar to a silly extent.
Again, I do a bit of leg-sniffing on encountering a black man: Is he a fellow American? Or does he demand not to be? The notorious commissioner in Leelanau County, Michigan who proudly used the N-word was making no statement about melanin but overtly about the fact that the state is politically dominated by counterculture blacks from Detroit. A few more years of race-obsessed workshops on the job and you won’t have to search that hard for racism. And it still won’t be about race.