Originally posted by: rudder
I suppose the Polish black community will be in an uproar..... well, all 6 of them.
Let's start with a note that it's not a sinister act. Companies make ads that are effective, and part of that is using models the people relate to. If there was an ad in Japan, would it likely have Japanese models, or Whites or Hispanic? And if there was an in Mexico, would it have Hispanic models or Japanese?
This was rather an issue of economy, not racism, just making the 'local ad' too cheaply.
But to look for some interesting questions, one is how advertising is not that rational, it's propaganda. Why does it matter what race the models are, to the merit of the product?
Another is, how might the policies of a nation like Poland be affected by not having many blacks? Does it affect their policies Africa, how blacks are treated in their nation?
In the US we've had a terrible time addressing racial discrimination and we've had blacks here since long before the US was created. How might a nation who doesn't deal with race?
Another is, what role does advertising play in perpetuating the lack of tolerance for minorities, racial or otherwise? For example, in a time when a young woman getting pregnant out of wedlock was great shame, and she was often sent out of town secretly, our television shows did not allow showing a married man and woman in the same bed, did not allow the word 'pregnant'. For decades of television while gay bigotry raged, the idea of an openly gay character was forbidden.
Until recent years, the idea of showing an interracial couple in an ad was pretty much forbidden as well - and still seems only a somewhat 'cutting edge' ad.
So if, say, 3% of Americans are in same-sex relationships, but 0.01% of advertising showing couples shows a same-sex couiple, what effect does that have on people's attitudes towards them- when you so often hear phrases like 'it's just not normal', how much of that is influenced by advertising giving them that message, when if they saw them in ads, it might 'legitimize' them?
There's a little-recognized social influence of advertising completely out of the hands of democracy, in terms of what messages the advertisers choose to reinforce.
Now that advertisers have embraced that the cost of white-only advertising exceeds the benefits, we're all familiar with the 'ad groups' with one asian, one black, etc.
But look for the overweight person in just about any ad, unless the person is there to be shown as overweight, like for a diet product. How does that affect society's attitudes?
Look for the handicapped person, the blind person, the nose ring person - these all send 'messages'.
Note how rarely tv characters have political discussions, to avoid offending any of the advertising targets, unless it's a carefully selected part of the show, like Archie Bunker or Boston Law. What message does that send? The loyalty of the television is to the sellers of products - except on non-sommerical tv like HBO, where, surprise, we see the better political shows, but even non-commercial networks have to get an audience and can only go so far in 'pushing' their audience to watch things challenging their attitudes.
While I'm not saying we should pass a law about it, I tihnk it's important to note the issue and how it affects attitudes.