Before I moved to Italy, I had been observing commercials with my father for quite some time and for a rather specific purpose. We have seen that in about 60% of TV commercials that they are all dedicated to showing racial harmony and clearly present the idea that America is, or tries to be a country of racial harmony. Whether it is or isn't is another discussion. In short there is always a white person and a black.....or some other minority and the white guy is made to look like an idiot or is the brunt of something. Of course I think many American commercials follow this pattern anyway in which someone gets made fun of or made to look like an idiot.
Some people may say that what I am saying sounds kinda racy......i dont think so! Just watch commercials and you will see what I mean, the black guy always looks more intelligent, scorns the skinny white guy and at times ends the commericial with him looking at the white guy as if to say "what is he doing???" Course this is merely my opinion, take it for what it is worth. I swear there must be an advertising agency who has a general scheme in which they make sure there is a white and a black.
My question is this: why does anyone have to look like an idiot in a commericial?? And it's not often done even in a fun way like in Europe. In Italy, people in pubblicità arent ridiculed or look socially awkward like in the USA and often they make me laugh. Of course then we touch upon one of the vast differences between US and Italian culture, in this case being that in the USA, ridicule is much more common in contemporary culture than in Italy. BTW On my blog here u can see a commerical that made me laugh the first time I saw it.
There is some hope for US commericials and in the past there have been some that have been really funny. Those days however kinda seem far gone unless we're at Super Bowl time.
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