“How about the business owned by a black female in which she “puts out fires,” then a white male is shown burning and she comes to the rescue with a fire extinguisher?”
I haven’t seen that (I rarely see commercials, due to the remote control), but I know the type. If one of them comes on when my children are present, I point out the absurdity of it by pointing towards nearby Newark NJ and telling them how many minorities we feed there every day. These commercials may boost the self-esteem of minorities or women, but they are a useful tool for demonstrating the lies of the media for young minds (especially if the ugly truth can be readily seen).
The first TV ad that I recall being absolutely repugnant was an insurance ad in which a woman was by her computer. She was spying on her BF through a webcam. When she saw him talking to another woman at a bar, she created a scissors and then cut his pants in the crotch. I don’t think it aired often and I hope people issued complaints.
Capital One, which I think is the company behind the ad I described earlier, has another ad. A black guy approaches a white female and begins a sentence with “Boss...” Message delivered. We get it: woman in power, males are secondary figures. But a feminized tattletale white male goes up to the pair and claims he saw another employee using staples (or some such thing) for something other than business-related. “Boss”? We get the picture on the people behind the ad exec industry.
And it seems every doctor is now a woman or minority, even in print ads. I saw one for a dental plan in white a black and white image showed a woman going to a white male dentist. Then, with the new plan, the images became colorized and the new doctor was a white female. Alas, a break through! Having to go to a white male dentist all those years, how did we survive.