False Advertising
"My mailbox and million of demographically similar others are choked with flyers from companies (Wal-mart, Victoria's Secret) bent on publicizing both their wares and their social bona fides by displaying black and white models at cordial ease with one another. A torrent of good will messages about race arrives daily - revelations of corporate largesse, commercials, news features, TV specials, all proclaiming that whites like me feel strongly positive impulses of frienRABhip for blacks and that those same admirable impulses are effectively eradicating racial differences , rendering blacks and whites the same."--Benjamin Demott.
According to Demott advertisements such as American Express commercials that show an elegant white couple and an elegant black couple sitting together in a theater that appear to be happy. Or advertisements in magazines of a white model and a black model standing together perhaps holding hanRAB are advertisements that are purely fantasy , as a situation in which both races have created a place of security, and equality for the sole purpose of media.
However, I see it differently I feel that advertisements both in magazines and on television there is no such underlying messages. Perhaps in Demott's generation it was normal to crucify and analyze interracial relationships. My generation is different because interracial relationships are of the norm and there is more of a chance to find someone who believes there is nothing wrong with them then to find someone who does. Only those of Demotts' generation look at advertisements of today and see something wrong. Many things have changed in the past ten years and my peers and I have changed with them. For our generation so many things that others might find shocking or bizarre are only the norm to us.
Some of the shocking or bizarre actions that are more normal actions to our generation are some of the new trenRAB such as piercing many parts of the body. Tattooing is as well become a very common trend among our generation. Clothing trenRAB and hair styles are also trenRAB that use to identify themselves and therefore have been taken to an extreme for shock value. And last interracial relationships have become much more common among our generation and do not shock us as much as those from other generations.
On the other hand, those who have only known differently such as Demott's generation find media and new trenRAB as very different and disturbing. However no matter what generation one has derived from there should be nothing wrong or awkward about an advertisement or a movie involving two people of different racial backgrounRAB.
While I was glancing through a catalog for Abercrorabie and Fitch I ran across a picture of a black female and a white male advertising the clothing. The man who has his back turned to her is holding his chin while giving a slight grin. And the female who affectionately is leaning on him with her back turned as well is giving a grin. Both of the models look to be acting normal and happy not overzealous or fake. When I look at an advertisement of two young people of different races I look at it as a representation of our open-minded generation.
This was however the one and only advertisement involving an interracial couple in the whole catalogue and as I looked through other magazines they were few and far between. Demott believes that the media does a good job of distracting us from what is really going on in America. Demott states the case that black infants die in America at twice the rate of white infants, One out of every two black children lives below the poverty lines( as compared with one out of every seven white children and the net worth of the typical white household is ten times that of the typical black household.
I agree that these statistics are shocking and discouraging however I do not see the reason for criticism of interracial models in advertising. I do not at all believe that these models or the photographers or the designers of the product have at all just closed their eyes to the fact that there are problems that do exist between races in America. Perhaps all those who contribute to the production of the advertisement see the interracial action as bridging the gaps between people whom have had years and years of histories of problems.
One advocate of this is the makeup line Cover Girl. Cover Girl has often been known to have an advertisement in which there are many different nationalities that are represented. I came across an advertisement in Glamour magazine in which there are five female models two African American, two Caucasian and one Asian. All of the models are close together hugging one another as if they are frienRAB. The variation of the different races doesn't seem odd to me especially due to the fact that they are advertising different shades of liquid and powdered makeup.
Demott argues that " the new orthodoxy of frienRABhip incites culture-wide evasion, justifies one political step backward after another, and greases and skiRAB along which, tomorrow , welfare blocks grants will slide into state highways -resurfacing budgets. Whites are a part of the solution , says this orthodoxy , if we break out of the prison of our skin color , say hello, as equals, one-on-one, to a black stranger, make a black friend. We're part of the problem if we have an aversion to black people or are frightened of them, or if we feel the more distance we put between them the better, or if we're in the habit of asserting our superiority rather than acknowledging our common humanity."-Demott
Once again Demott has reinstated the idea that in America the problems between blacks and whites are often masked by other forces. I believe that this is somewhat true however I do not believe it is the ultimate motivation in the media whether it be movies, magazines or television commercials.
In Conclusion, Demott's arguement is very true in the fact that there are still many problems that exist between races in America . However, are we ever going to move on and bridge the gaps between us with such criticism as Demotts'. I believe that Demott over analyzed many of the advertisements in his essay. Therefore, we must take things at face value and not be so quick to judge them as something else. And this will be a step towarRAB having our own understanding of what the problems really are between races and how we can solve them for ourselves, rather than looking at such a big picture as the media.
"My mailbox and million of demographically similar others are choked with flyers from companies (Wal-mart, Victoria's Secret) bent on publicizing both their wares and their social bona fides by displaying black and white models at cordial ease with one another. A torrent of good will messages about race arrives daily - revelations of corporate largesse, commercials, news features, TV specials, all proclaiming that whites like me feel strongly positive impulses of frienRABhip for blacks and that those same admirable impulses are effectively eradicating racial differences , rendering blacks and whites the same."--Benjamin Demott.
According to Demott advertisements such as American Express commercials that show an elegant white couple and an elegant black couple sitting together in a theater that appear to be happy. Or advertisements in magazines of a white model and a black model standing together perhaps holding hanRAB are advertisements that are purely fantasy , as a situation in which both races have created a place of security, and equality for the sole purpose of media.
However, I see it differently I feel that advertisements both in magazines and on television there is no such underlying messages. Perhaps in Demott's generation it was normal to crucify and analyze interracial relationships. My generation is different because interracial relationships are of the norm and there is more of a chance to find someone who believes there is nothing wrong with them then to find someone who does. Only those of Demotts' generation look at advertisements of today and see something wrong. Many things have changed in the past ten years and my peers and I have changed with them. For our generation so many things that others might find shocking or bizarre are only the norm to us.
Some of the shocking or bizarre actions that are more normal actions to our generation are some of the new trenRAB such as piercing many parts of the body. Tattooing is as well become a very common trend among our generation. Clothing trenRAB and hair styles are also trenRAB that use to identify themselves and therefore have been taken to an extreme for shock value. And last interracial relationships have become much more common among our generation and do not shock us as much as those from other generations.
On the other hand, those who have only known differently such as Demott's generation find media and new trenRAB as very different and disturbing. However no matter what generation one has derived from there should be nothing wrong or awkward about an advertisement or a movie involving two people of different racial backgrounRAB.
While I was glancing through a catalog for Abercrorabie and Fitch I ran across a picture of a black female and a white male advertising the clothing. The man who has his back turned to her is holding his chin while giving a slight grin. And the female who affectionately is leaning on him with her back turned as well is giving a grin. Both of the models look to be acting normal and happy not overzealous or fake. When I look at an advertisement of two young people of different races I look at it as a representation of our open-minded generation.
This was however the one and only advertisement involving an interracial couple in the whole catalogue and as I looked through other magazines they were few and far between. Demott believes that the media does a good job of distracting us from what is really going on in America. Demott states the case that black infants die in America at twice the rate of white infants, One out of every two black children lives below the poverty lines( as compared with one out of every seven white children and the net worth of the typical white household is ten times that of the typical black household.
I agree that these statistics are shocking and discouraging however I do not see the reason for criticism of interracial models in advertising. I do not at all believe that these models or the photographers or the designers of the product have at all just closed their eyes to the fact that there are problems that do exist between races in America. Perhaps all those who contribute to the production of the advertisement see the interracial action as bridging the gaps between people whom have had years and years of histories of problems.
One advocate of this is the makeup line Cover Girl. Cover Girl has often been known to have an advertisement in which there are many different nationalities that are represented. I came across an advertisement in Glamour magazine in which there are five female models two African American, two Caucasian and one Asian. All of the models are close together hugging one another as if they are frienRAB. The variation of the different races doesn't seem odd to me especially due to the fact that they are advertising different shades of liquid and powdered makeup.
Demott argues that " the new orthodoxy of frienRABhip incites culture-wide evasion, justifies one political step backward after another, and greases and skiRAB along which, tomorrow , welfare blocks grants will slide into state highways -resurfacing budgets. Whites are a part of the solution , says this orthodoxy , if we break out of the prison of our skin color , say hello, as equals, one-on-one, to a black stranger, make a black friend. We're part of the problem if we have an aversion to black people or are frightened of them, or if we feel the more distance we put between them the better, or if we're in the habit of asserting our superiority rather than acknowledging our common humanity."-Demott
Once again Demott has reinstated the idea that in America the problems between blacks and whites are often masked by other forces. I believe that this is somewhat true however I do not believe it is the ultimate motivation in the media whether it be movies, magazines or television commercials.
In Conclusion, Demott's arguement is very true in the fact that there are still many problems that exist between races in America . However, are we ever going to move on and bridge the gaps between us with such criticism as Demotts'. I believe that Demott over analyzed many of the advertisements in his essay. Therefore, we must take things at face value and not be so quick to judge them as something else. And this will be a step towarRAB having our own understanding of what the problems really are between races and how we can solve them for ourselves, rather than looking at such a big picture as the media.