I mostly agree with you, but one problem, especially with commercials, is the small cast. Movies usually have larger casts, but the typical flick has one or two leads and 3-5 major supporting characters. The small world problem exists there as well. I’ll stick with the commercials for the moment. I agree with you that the composition of many commercials today sticks out like a sore thumb. BUT ....
Some advertising is highly targeted, but suppose I am pitching a generic American product to a generic American audience. I want characters with whom all demographics can identify. That’s just good marketing, and it would still be good marketing if we could take all the race hustlers and lock them away.
So how do I do that if I have four people in the commercial in a country that is 60 percent non-hispanic white, 18 percent hispanic (which can be of any race), 13 percent black, and 6 percent Asian, (and 73 percent white if we count white hispanics)?
And that’s not including the scattering of other folks who should get a nod from time to time. Nor does it yet consider the gender balance, or the presence of children, who will almost always be linked to adult character(s).
In a four person commercial, the math demands that a lot of marriages will be mixed, every white guy is going to have a black, hispanic or asian buddy, and mixed race actors who can punch two buttons hold the trump cards. Two white characters out of four underrepresents the white population, but a single black, hispanic or asian character overrepresents those groups.
The only way to solve this problem if one really wanted to be strict about quotas would be to have at least nine or ten people in the commercial.
A two person commercial? Better jump out the window before the race hustlers skin you alive, or live with massive overrepresentation of mixed marriages.
The racial hysteria is a problem. The infestation of wokesters in the executive suites is a problem. But the math also creates an inevitable small world problem that has to be factored into the discussion.
What’s your age
It’s not a criticism
I agree small cast is an issue
But I grew up pre ad cast machinations although I suppose the nuclear family perspective came through
And we had black and gay characters
Selling stuff
Paul Lynde
Charles Nelson Reilly
Blacks were often celebs like OJ or Cosby which is wierd looking back isn’t it
Race got in there but not serving a social purpose like now
And fathers were not bashed at all hardly
Women were more feminine and emotional and loving maternal which from my old perspective is not inaccurate even now