![]() ![]() “I’m glad that people are talking about this,” Tweed said. “But at the end of the day it really does signal that there’s a lot of cultural insensitivity in our country.” However, she cites diversity efforts by well-established brands like Marvel and Barbie as a positive step in the right direction. “I think that’s a comforting thought,” Warren said. “Taking such a strong stance could actually be better for your business … you might end up getting people who want to be on your side because you’re doing the right thing.” “Brands could actually win a little bit more in that way,” she said. Tweed says Target’s bathroom stance and Old Navy’s interracial couple ad actually made her personally more motivated to shop in those stores. Still, the backlash could cut both ways – with more progressive-minded consumers embracing a company because it takes the risk of appearing more tolerant. RELATED: Biracial Sons More Likely Than Daughters To Identify As Black I don’t know if the general public is prepared to have their brands are tell them how to live.” It’s frightening to see a couple that is antithesis of what you think a wholesome family would be. When it comes to the uproar over Old Navy, Lewis suggested that ”to place that much meaning on it is very much a projection of that person’s normative way of life. ![]() “Working in this business can still be very frustrating,” she said, “and it is because of that lack of representation in the room a lot times.” But the key part is we are connecting with consumers.”Īlthough Lewis said she has seen some significant improvement on race matters in the last two to three years, she concedes that the makers of the ads we watch are often just as off-base as their haters. Are we moving a little faster than everyone else? I’m not quite sure. “We are really moving the ball forward in terms of equality. “It’s a talent issue, not a creative issue,” Warren said. Lewis, who has worked with brands like Toyota and Wal-Mart to help address how internal and external biases might effect their commercial messaging, didn’t find the backlash to the Old Navy ad shocking, but admitted she is “tired” of hearing critics cast any ad that portrays mixed race couples in a positive light as an act of political provocation. RELATED: Tangled in Knots: Zendaya and The Politics of 'Casual Racism' ![]() “If you pay only a modest bit of the attention to the news, you know we don’t.” “Sometimes there are folks in the room who actually believe we live in a post-racial society,” cultural strategist Denitria Lewis, who has been been working in advertising for 15 years, told MSNBC Thursday. (Now, if that person could just talk to the people that make sitcoms.This so-called controversy is another example of how our nation’s retail stores are becoming a new battleground for its culture wars (Target has been vilified for its pro-equality bathroom policies), and of the challenges advertisers face when trying to present a more realistic portrait of multicultural America. Is this commercial a sign that we are heading into a new age of pop culture enlightenment? Is this the dawn of an era in which a commercial dad can be more than the butt of the joke?īut hey – at least somebody got it right once. Perhaps the most shocking thing about this commercial is that someone at an ad agency is apparently as fed up with the way that dads are portrayed in commercials as I am. He cares about his kids, is skilled at seeing to their needs, is 100% invested in his family, and he loves it. He is a Dad like billions of Dads the world over. Not once does he fall down and get his head stuck in something. The Mom doesn’t need to bail him out once. Not only that, but he is fully invested in being a dad and – get this – is completely capable of caring for his kids. He is… wait for it… a dad with his crap together. ©BAKERĬheerios has made a commercial ( this one, in fact) about a dad that is not an incompetent goofball a dad that doesn’t say and/or do things so wildly idiotic that no thinking human being could possibly relate to him a dad that isn’t a lazy, spineless, helpless, hopeless waste of space on the couch. Having no idea what to expect, I watched – and was stunned. Yesterday, my wife came running over to me with her YouTube app open on her phone and said, “You’ve got to see this! It’s a Cheerios commercial and it’s… well, here, just watch.” ![]()
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