Stereotyping in Advertising: By Race
This advertisement is one that I actually saw while walking Time Square in New York. Just to describe the advertisement in detail a little bit because this was taken with my Blackberry phone and not a professional camera. The Headline reads “Thought Prison was Hard? : Try looking for a DECENT JOB when you get out.” Under the headline is actually the name of the company sponsoring the ad which I did not get a great image of when I took the shot. To the left of the company’s name is a black family. Many times I hear how the black community is always in some kind of trouble and always locked up. This company may have meant no harm but I took this advertisement offensively. I rather had seen a stick figured family or a group of people of all backgrounds before this picture of this family. To me this picture screams the stereotype of black families staying in the prison systems, when in all this applies to people of all backgrounds that the company needs to be targeting.
Weekly Dose of London 
I actually did a blog similar to this one because I do think sometimes advertisements are very insensitive when it comes to not being so offensive. There are plenty of advertisements that could be seen as offensive, but it is very difficult for advertisers to please everyone. Like who knew that McDonald’s ads could be so offensive, but they are. Black people singing over chicken nuggets, or the Everest commercials that makes it seem as though you have to be a minority woman with a kid or two to feel like you need better for yourself and family by attending their school. Many things are seen as offensive and it’s not that advertisers should walk on eggshells when considering a new ad, they should just be more sensitive as to what they are putting in the public eye. This ad to be hanging in the middle of Times Square, one of the busiest places in America and they do this, now where in the world did they hear that this was okay.
I have to say that I honestly think that stereo typing won’t come to an end until we as a society begin using non-labeled advertising. There was a parody on MAD T.V. referencing a commercial from a fake restaurant ‘Down Home Pancakes’. The commercial that was marketed to white people said: “Feeling hungry?…we’ve got berries…and homemade syrup.” The ‘BET’ ad said: “What up B*tch? We got all sorts of crazy a$$ pancakes up in this B*ich.” The Univision Spanish channel version:”They got all kinds of stuff in this pancake place esse. (2nd guy) Cool man! Do they got jobs for us?” Finally, during the ‘Godzilla’ marathon the following ran: (Asian man’s voice) It pancake. (female voice) Ooh! Pancake. hehe…Explosion in your mouth! pow pow! hehe” All stereotyped commercials. Here is a link to the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edW1ZqFXrno