Quote:
|
Originally Posted by milo
I think the intentions of the marketing companies is less about subverting you into social cohesion and much more about not accidentally excluding a segment of society that could buy the product/service.
|
I don't think he's saying they're doing it so we think we're living in a utopia but for other reasons - which might include desire to sell to the entire market, etc.
Overall though this discussion reminds me of what Michael Moore said in one of his books (I can't remember which) about Friends. A lot of people complained that there were no prominent black characters on Friends but Moore said that this was actually fairly realistic. If you have a group of white middle class friends living in New York then they probably wouldn't have a token black friend, so why bother lying in your TV shows and pretending they do? Same with Seinfeld, although there are a couple of black characters none of them are friends of the main characters in any real sense (I read somewhere that despite being the most popular show in America at one point, Seinfeld wasn't even in the top 50 most popular shows among blacks in the US). So the point is that adverts do try and portray some sort of racial mix (for the reasons you mention, and others) and in doing so often come across as fairly unrealistic.
Quote:
|
Whats south african television like? Blacks on blondes?!
|
Africanists are not interested in mixing with European degenerates one would imagine. That seems to be much of a white man fantasy given the market for interracial porn in the US. *shrug*
But no, SA TV shows (especially soaps & adverts) from what I saw seemed to be in complete denial of the economic realities of the country. So a lot of their shows (often with all black casts) don't have any poor people in them whatsoever or even mention their could be poor people. Imagine Dynasty with black actors and where people go from speaking Xhosi to English in every second scene. Where there were white people then there was never any racism (it was a bit like with the white guy in Desmonds).