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Do TV Ads Forecast the Future?
Townhall. com ^ | January 10, 2022 | Lawrence Mead

Posted on 01/10/2022 11:09:11 AM PST by Kaslin

Blacks have been a growing presence on television for decades. This reflects their huge and positive impact on the most visible aspects of American life—the arts (especially music), entertainment, religion, politics, and sports. Black leaders and stars achieved this even though they often faced discrimination and their group today is still only 13 percent of the population.

But that is not enough to satisfy today’s identity activists. From 2018, advertisements on television changed sharply. The actors in them had been mostly white, presumably because over 60 percent of the population is white. But now suddenly most of the whites vanished, replaced by actors of color, especially blacks. And most of the remaining whites were women. Identity politics had completely taken over. A survey by the Geena Davis Institute confirms that characters of color in ads grew sharply in recent years, reaching 46 percent in 2019, or well above their share of the population.

A friend in the advertising business explained that the companies funding the ads had demanded that the ad industry show more “diversity” on the screen. The pressure came from “Free the Work” and other activist groups. They contended that women and minorities had been excluded unfairly from leading roles, not only in the ads but in the business behind the camera. So producers have scrambled to make amends, although except on the screen industry leaders remain largely white and male.

The ads do give a highly attractive image of an integrated America. They typically show men and women of all races, and also children, interacting amicably as they display and recommend the advertised products. And the whites who still appear ignore race entirely. If a multicultural America really was this harmonious, everyone would cheer.

But the ads vastly over represent the minority presence in the society. They often depict minorities as outnumbering whites, who remain a large majority of the population. And the impression they give of a sudden minority advance is entirely artificial, the result of a mandate from on high.

The change reflects the crudest kind of social engineering. The research behind the demands, done at UCLA, defines equity solely in terms of groups, not individuals. These studies say that the share of a group hired must at least equal its share of the entire population, not simply of those who applied, let alone the most qualified. Anything short of equal group representation is taken as proof of discrimination. In this calculus, only gender and race are even considered.

The Biden administration is leading America down this path. Of all appointments to Biden’s Cabinet, 40 percent were white men; of earlier presidents, only Obama named so few. The woke vision imagines an America where all visible positions are divided up by gender and race to enforce equality. As in the ad industry, advocates will hound all firms to produce equal group outcomes, regardless of the merits.

Norms of equal opportunity have been totally trashed here. To date, white leaders have not resisted. They even confess their own racism, even though few if any of them can believe it. None of them dares to defend white men, for to do that would invite angry charges of racism or sexism. It is like the show trials in Communist Russia in the '30s, when senior apparatchiks were not only condemned but forced to admit fictitious crimes. But if preferences escalate, white men are bound to resist.

The emerging regime, however, is equally insulting to those favored by it. Women and minorities will get more and better jobs than before, but they can no longer take pride that they were hired on the merits. Maybe their role is only to satisfy a quota. Some of the production companies who generate ads for television are already owned by blacks. They are ambivalent about the new demands. After all, they got where they are without preferences. The effect of the new regime is inevitably to demean their accomplishments.

Blacks would do better to rely on the individual achievements that have already made them leading creators of American culture. They did that on their own, and they should keep doing it. Progress that way will be slower than the instant transformation promised in the ad world, but it would be much more real. The building of a freer, more integrated society cannot occur overnight.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: africanamerican; television
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To: Kaslin

TV ads or commercials are not memorable or creative and frankly it doesn’t matter if they have Blacks, or homosexuals, or martians, I honestly cannot think of a commercial that made me interested in a product or inclined to buy it based on a commercial. In fact the opposite is often true.


21 posted on 01/10/2022 12:16:34 PM PST by 1Old Pro (Let's make crime illegal again!)
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To: Kaslin

From the article:

“They typically show men and women of all races, and also children, interacting amicably as they display and recommend the advertised products. And the whites who still appear ignore race entirely.”

You’d prefer it if they portrayed whites as cross-burning KKK members? Believe me, there are some wokesters who would do just that if they were in charge of making ads. Treating everyone equally, regardless of race, is a conservative ideal.


22 posted on 01/10/2022 12:17:06 PM PST by FormerFRLurker
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To: Kaslin

They don’t forecast the future. The future has already been determined. We know what the USA will look like.

The left is very happy that the future will consist of fewer Whites. The TV ads are to condition us to welcome it wholeheartedly.

The radical left, the one that is in control now, has blamed Whitey for all the evils in the world and is working hard to replace Whitey, after taking all his money.


23 posted on 01/10/2022 12:18:43 PM PST by I want the USA back (Government is to be feared much more than the chicom virus.)
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To: Kaslin

Tv ads push an agenda, just like tv shows and movies.


24 posted on 01/10/2022 12:22:38 PM PST by Trillian
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To: Kaslin

I don’t blame the black actors/actresses that are flooding commercials now. More power to them...take the work while you can get it.

It’s the woke companies I’m pissed off at.


25 posted on 01/10/2022 12:23:43 PM PST by moovova
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To: Kaslin

It’s called PROGRAMMING for a reason. They are deliberately programming white people to think of themselves as a minority. All the advertisers are in on it.


26 posted on 01/10/2022 12:25:01 PM PST by euram
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To: Alberta's Child

I guess I’m the last one to know that … because I don’t even know what the hell a “streaming network” is.

A streaming network is one that is entirely digital, no cable and you can watch it just as easily on your laptop as on an actual TV. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime are streaming networks.

27 posted on 01/10/2022 12:26:37 PM PST by FormerFRLurker
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To: Red Badger

Another moronic screed from Clownhall.com...
What a POS operation...


28 posted on 01/10/2022 12:27:23 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is another Sam Adams now that we desperately need him?)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Good analysis.


29 posted on 01/10/2022 12:27:44 PM PST by FormerFRLurker
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To: 1Old Pro

Agree. Investing in adblockers was one of the best decisions I ever made. If someone interrupts my enjoyment of classical music on YouTube, no way am I buying their product.


30 posted on 01/10/2022 12:29:20 PM PST by FormerFRLurker
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To: Steve_Seattle

And the vast majority of couples, both in print and on screen, are portrayed as interracial. NTTAWT, but it’s just not an accurate reflection of America in 2022.


31 posted on 01/10/2022 12:35:45 PM PST by jagusafr ( )
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To: Kaslin
I'm guessing most ad agencies hire large numbers of gay white democrats who hate Trump, hate his supporters and hate white heterosexuals. Their hatred takes the form of sticking it to white heterosexual men.

FOXNews needs to be very careful about ads FOX gets a percentage of the profits on...

Ad agencies don't like white men but they hate FOXNews. And they will pull out all the stops before the midterms and use 'get a percentage' ads to take down FoxNews.

32 posted on 01/10/2022 12:38:18 PM PST by GOPJ
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To: Kaslin

Of course it is not just T.V. Retail stores make a point of having non-whites in their ads. Even outdoorsy sites like L.L. Bean feature lots of black models.

Family scenes nearly always feature at least one mixed-race child.

Brokerage firms are also not exempt. Merrill Lynch does show white people, but they are being advised by black agents. Edward Jones login page shows an Hispanic family, and when you do log in there is a picture of a black woman at her computer.


33 posted on 01/10/2022 12:49:36 PM PST by hanamizu
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To: Alberta's Child

Correct. Advertising is targeted at people who watch ads. Anyone with half a brain is only watching ad-free streaming services or their own video libraries at this point.

It never fails to amaze me when friends complain about some commercial and stare at me like I’m from another planet when I ask “If you don’t like them, why do you watch them?”

Ads aren’t designed to be liked. They’re designed to be remembered, and at this they are very, very good.


34 posted on 01/10/2022 12:55:50 PM PST by AustinBill (consequence is what makes our choices real)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Perhaps one positive aspect of the massive prevalence of blacks and other POC in commercials nowadays is that, in these commercials, they are portrayed having solid families, cookouts, trips to the park, etc., and a lot of generally wholesome stuff. So they are behaving the same way and 'living the American dream' just like the whites in the commercials do... except they're black. Or hispanic, or whatever.

Which is what we want -- a unified culture and set of values, origins be damned. Not sure if this is intentional or just a side-effect.

35 posted on 01/10/2022 12:56:55 PM PST by Joe Brower ("Might we not live in a nobler dream than this?" -- John Ruskin)
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To: Joe Brower

Good comment.


36 posted on 01/10/2022 12:59:28 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (The experts are liars. The conspiracy theorists are the people who have figured out the Truth.)
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To: wbarmy

“ I actually have trouble buying their product anymore because of that removal.”

Once you try Kerrygold you’ll never go back.


37 posted on 01/10/2022 1:00:21 PM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
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To: Kaslin

I won’t be happy until ads for the NBA and NFL focus primarily on Asian players.


38 posted on 01/10/2022 1:06:45 PM PST by Stosh
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To: Kaslin

A survey by the Geena Davis Institute

They can take their study and drive it right off of a cliff. I’m assuming that the underlying purpose of their “institute” is to drive America right off of a cliff.
BTW, what a waste of a perfectly good ‘66 Thunderbird.


39 posted on 01/10/2022 1:18:34 PM PST by centermass_socrates (Tap, rack, bang clears blockages, even the leftist political ones.)
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To: Kaslin

Does anyone watch TV anymore? The only TV I watch is internet streamed Korean TV. And amazingly, when ads appear at all, all the actors are Asian. Fancy that.


40 posted on 01/10/2022 1:22:43 PM PST by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
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