As we’ve been catching up on some popular TV shows we missed from the early 2000s, I’ve been struck by the commercials on free streaming platforms such as Tubi, Pluto TV and Amazon Freevee. (We pulled the plug on cable TV nearly two years ago.) Grating soundtracks and goofy acting aside, there’s something else that nearly all of these ads have in common. See if you can spot what it is.
Crunch Fitness
Chips Ahoy!
Spectrum One
Spectrum One again
Skyrizi
Amazon Blink
Amazon won’t allow this video to play back on other websites, so I’ll just post a screen grab from three seconds in:
OREO
Nature Valley
Do you see it? The completely outsized push for racial diversity? Hey, I am all for diversity and representation when it is done fairly and equitably, but this is absurd.
Think I’m being unfair? Data from the most recent U.S. Census suggests that during any given commercial break, every 10 commercial actors should include: 6 whites, 2 Hispanics, 1 black, and 1 “other.”
Is that what you see on your TV?
And it’s every commercial break, I swear.
For the record, here is another ad that I see far too often. The edited-for-TV version miraculously edits out almost all of the white people.
Which brings me to something else I’ve noticed: a rash of brands debuting new slogans that go out of their way to sell the idea that they are “for everyone” — as if these companies were somehow barring nonwhite people from buying their products until recently.
Oh, well. At least we know which brands are chasing that sweet, sweet ESG money.
Please, someone wake me when advertisers restore some semblance of balance and authenticity to racial representation in TV commercials. Until then, I’m tuning out — and not just due to all this forced diversity, but because today’s TV commercials are frankly dreadful.
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One can only imagine if the Blacks outnumbered the White population what North America would be like.
One huge slum!
I totally agree and have stopped watching any of the networks that keep putting these pharmaceutical commercials out, this should be between patient and doctor
I know I’m digressing but it’s not just those annoying inauthentic commercials and print ads. I live in an area of the country where I get both NYC and Philadelphia channels, both major markets so very plumb jobs. This was true even before cable. You can count the white newscasters on one hand. Nothing but black and Hispanic reporters and anchors. I believe everyone should have an equal shot but I’ll never believe that many of these talking heads aren’t just diversity hires to check off a box and win ESG points. Also, I was taught to speak proper English not slang. If only these individuals realized they are professionals and not talking with their friends. Stop saying axe for ask!
I get it, Cynthia. There’s a popular morning radio show here that recently hired a sidekick or partner for the white guy whose name is on the marquee. She’s a black lesbian and they go out of their way to make sure you know that during every show.
So true
Agree. It’s the same in the mid-west. ESG has alreday destroyed thousands of everyday small businesses. The only way to stop this insane marketing strategy is to stop buying the products and services totally (not holding my breath). The impetus for this repulsive ESG scoring started with the recklessly progressive NGOs like the Ad Council – with your tax dollars backing them.
Yes, their products are “for everyone”, like anyone was barred from buying them before, ha, that made me laugh. And if you say well based on the statistics, x group is now massively over-represented, the lefties say yes but it only redresses the shortfall of the past. Ha! You can’t win.
Yes, there’s always another excuse or grievance that we must make up for. The fact that the topic of reparations has gotten so much talk and traction — at a time when no living American has ever owned slaves or been a slave themselves — shows how unhinged we have become.
Thanks for your blog and really enjoy this site. In today’s cancel culture and woke society (it’s not right to be a conservative white in America) we are in scary times.
Take a look at the news media,Hollywood,some corporate businesses, Disney and others are creating a false representation of blacks in general…what we now have in our commercials is a professional black family living in a gated community while the dumb white person is delivering their pizza … or Disney is changing the characters on original classics….and don’t forget news media concentrating on white on black crimes… Where’s the diversity for the Asians, Hispanics or the indigenous folks in commercials? Most of your talk shows are predominantly black hosts ….don’t forget some of the music awards….the list goes on … Let’s make it fair and diverse for all and not concentrating just on one race….
Good post, Concerned American. I agree, diversity means representation for all people. But right now, the balance is definitely skewed in favor of one group at the growing expense of others.
Well written and so true!
LOL! It’s not even subtle. And…1) if there’s a white and black guy doing some schtick, it’s the white guy playing the goofy buffoon, 99.9% of the time; and 2) there’s innumerable “bi-racial” couples, which means black guy and white girl (and amazingly she’s not fat). So…there you have it.
You are right, Shrugged, it is absolutely not subtle anymore. In fact, it’s so blatant and brazen that it would almost be comical if it were not for all the discord and division it’s sowing among people of all races who in general have no problems with one another and just want to get along.
Black must be the “new” white.
No, black is the new green, if all of this ESG funding is any indication.
Not only race. Gender. Sexual abnormality. [Not in commercials yet but,] Also in programming. Drug use. Violence. Profanity. There is one accessible, workable response. Without fanfare, boycott networks [as you did “cable”] products and merchants. Speak with like-minded peers to convince them to stop patronizing companies pandering to minority tantrums. Ball-up then and speak with apathetic ones to convince them of this slur on people everywhere and to join you expressing distaste for the quo of status by withholding their dollars.
Every one of these obnoxious, ridiculously stupid and overplayed GEICO, LIBERTY MUTUAL and PROGRESSIVE insurance commercials that constantly keep showing up on TV every ten minutes all damn day and night….can all go to hell.
Absolutely right, spwilcen. As the Bud Light debacle showed, boycotts are a powerful way to teach brands a painful lesson. Since the beer brand’s ill-fated partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light has lost 25 percent of its market share, surrendered its top spot on the sales charts to Modelo Especial, and been stigmatized to an extent that may not be recoverable.
Similar lessons are being learned by retail giant Target, which has seen a sharp drop in sales over the last three months due to a backlash against its Pride Month merchandise which included children’s clothes — much of it Disney-themed, surprise, surprise — and a children’s book about pronouns.
Inclusivity is fine. But when certain lines are crossed, consumers are well within their rights to hold brands accountable.
I hear resounding “Amens!” Now we need to encourage the congregation to stand and bully corporations and politicians until sanity returns.
You’re absolutely right. But the “sexual abnormality” you mention has indeed made it into TV and radio commercials as well as all print media. If the viewer/reader has their antenna up (punn intended) they will spot the code signals.
I have been receiving women’s catalogs, mostly clothing, for the past 2 1/2 years that literally have NO white models in them. Same with the retailers websites. I have a very simple rule. If more than 20% of the models are black, I throw the catalog in the trash. Same for retailer emails. DELETE. Additionally, I have gone to Nordstrom, Macy’s, and others to tell them directly I’m assuming they no longer sell to white people and, after 10, 15, 20 years, I will not be purchasing from them any longer. I wish them Good Luck selling to 13% of our population. EVERYONE sees and understands this lie. Let’s see how much longer they can hold out if they are losing 80% of their customers.
Spot on Susan!
Good on you, Susan, for speaking up and telling these companies directly that they will be losing your business. I believe the front-line workers get it, and they’ll pass your feedback along. But this “white erasure” will likely continue until the marketing and finance departments notice big drops in sales and customers — and even then, the top brass probably won’t be too concerned so long as the ESG money makes up the shortfall.
Keep after them, and thanks for writing.
Right on Susan!
I’ve noticed this more and more and it’s time to say enough
I’m with you Susan!
Their commercials are for everyone… unless, of course, you are blonde-haired and blue-eyed.
I’m no longer relevant because as a person with white privilege I must be castrated out of society as the despicable, disgusting dirt bag that I am (and my heterosexual husband and my two little blonde, blue-eyed daughters as well).
What galls me with regards to this diversity topic is how I am made to feel about my whiteness, after all I will never be able to understand what it feels like to be discriminated against due to my skin color (remember it has nothing to do with monetary privilege, as they like to remind you when you tell them you grew up poor and paid for every penny of your college education yourself). No, I’ve never had all the strikes against me from birth. But a former boyfriend does, who is Chinese-Japanese-American and he had something totally unexpected to say to me about it. I was dating him during the Rodney King attack when I was living in Southern California. I asked him one night how he felt about all the cries of bigoted discrimination of white cops on a black man and whether he’d ever experienced discrimination growing up in California. He told me that of course he had been harassed, being pushed off his bike as a kid, called a dirty “chink” and “jap” and other horrible slurs I won’t repeat here. “How did it affect you?” I had asked. “How does it look like it affected me?” he responded. His parents were both school teachers, he grew up in a modest neighborhood in north Orange County, no money. But he had become a successful business owner with an undergraduate degree from UCLA, an MBA from Cornell and a doctorate degree from Yale. His freshman year at UCLA he was part of a fraternity with a really talented and academically bright black man, who had come to UCLA on a variety of scholarships. But my boyfriend told me this talented black athlete “pissed” it all away and dropped out his first year because he “was being disrespected on campus because I’m black.” I can’t tell you the amount of disgust I felt oozing out of my boyfriend towards this drop out… this from the little chink boy from Orange County, pushed off his bike, punched in the mouth, and treated like crap for his skin color who has every right to talk about his lack of privilege but chose to take the higher ground instead. I don’t think his “white privileged” girlfriend ever came to mind for a single one of his childhood black eyes. Go figure…
Excellent post, Kinchan. Thank you for sharing.
SKYRIZI gets muted every time. “Nothing is everything,”
The DEI is tragic. ESG is a scourge. Pharma trash is especially bad. In numerous ways.
Have you seen the annoying, godawful, singing and dancing, Jardiance TV commercial? The WORST pharma commercial of them all.I called and asked them to remove this horrible commercial from my TV.
Thanks, Gary. I haven’t seen it, but I’ll check it out.
You got it, Pulse. Speaking of Big Pharma, have you seen the tagline at the end of Pfizer’s new RSV commercial? It’s “Outdo Yesterday,” which I can’t help but think of as a not-so-subtle nod to the company’s desire to return its revenue and earnings to 2022 levels during the height of the COVID madness when Pfizer earned a record $100 billion — $37.8 billion from the experimental jabs alone.
The only thing any of these irritating and overplayed Pharmaceutical commercials are doing, is just making viewers sick of seeing them on TV every ten minutes all damn day and night!
I only hope that I soon come down with some horrible disease, so I can jump around, dance, sing, and act like a total jackass in an annoying and overplayed pharmaceutical TV commercial.
Yes, Gary, the singing and dancing gets to me, too. Whether it’s an ad for prescription medication or a clothing retailer such as Old Navy, I’ve always found these antics to be stupid, irrelevant, and embarrassing.
WOW!!! Stupid, irrelevant, and embarrassing… may I also add “unwanted, and a total waste of our precious TV viewing time!” lol