Still Talking Stereotypes

Are stereotypes still around? Oh yes. Maybe not offensive stereotypes like women being in the kitchen and Asians not being able to drive, but in small subtle ways that you may not even realize because they add a little humor to distract you from it. My favorite example is The Big Bang Theory. One of my most favorite shows but it is so full of stereotypes it is quite amazing. The first and most obvious is the smart intellectual type are always cast as being socially awkward and have no idea how to talk to women without some form or stimulus like alcohol. Then there is the dumb blonde who didn't go to college and can't get any other job than being a waitress. The tiny Jewish guy who lives with his mother and often breaks the "rules" of being a Jew by eating things like bacon. Sheldon's mother who is from Texas and is a devout Catholic but is portrayed as ignorant and stupid. All very obvious stereotyping but it is masked with humor to distract the viewer from realizing these things. I would not say that this is a good excuse but it does exist and like most people say it is a necessary evil because it is what people know and they need to relate.

Racism In TV Shows: Power Rangers

The television show I chose to talk about is The Might Morphin Power Rangers. This was one of my all time favorite shows as a kid but unfortunately it is ripe with racial stereotyping. As a child, I was rather naive and did not realize there were things like that in the world. I just though they were all friends because I grew up thinking everyone was equal. That changed when I grew up.

This show does though have a pretty good range of racial diversity having people from a few different racial backgrounds. I feel that the show was meant to show that there is a broad range of people in the world and many of them interact and are friends. It showed that everyone can get along and even save the world no matter your ethnic background or color. A hero is still a hero no matter the color of skin or where you are from.

Does this show have racial stereotypes? Not in the way we think about them but specific actors were assigned to specific colors of the rangers. Walter Jones, an African American actor is cast as the black ranger, Thuy Trang, an Asian actor was cast as the yellow ranger, and in later episodes Jason David Frank is cast as the white ranger who then becomes the leader of the group. There is speculation that the red ranger played by Austin St. John was was of Native American Background. So many obvious racial overtones. This also playing into people over thinking things in the media. It could have been an accident, but probably not. As a child I only saw The Power Rangers, but as an adult I look back and am astonished that they were able to get away with this for a children's television show.

Few funny videos you might enjoy, but also shows how absolutely true this really is.

VH1 I love the 90s: Power Rangers.

College Humor: Zordon is a Racist

Racism and Stereotyping in Advertising

Even though we may not think it, and that people say it does not exist anymore, racism is definitely still around. Advertising is one place that it is easy to pin point racism and stereotyping. It is easy to make an ad based off stereotypes like how white people can't dance, African Americans are great sports players, Asians are great extremely smart, women, Asians, and old people can't drive and so on. It is definitely not a good thing to do but the fact still remains that racially stereotyping in advertising still exists whether or not people think otherwise. I want to say that advertisers do indeed have ethical responsibility to not create ads of this nature but they are ads that are easy to make because when people see them they automatically assume that what is being shown is the truth.

Couple examples:
First shows that this car is so simple even a woman can drive it. As if driving is a difficult task that only men are capable to do so. From my experience women are bad drivers, and so are men, and the elderly, and pretty much everyone of any national background, my list can go one and on. This ad shows that women are exclusively bad drivers and by purchasing this car they will be raised to the same level of a man and be able to drive perfectly well.

Second ad shows a young Asian boy who received an A+ on this test because he wrote on paper. What? he learned on paper so he got an A+? Stupidest ad I have ever seen, but the fact that a young Asian boy is type cast shows the typical stereotype of Asians being great at math and school. You can put any person of any national background and this would still be a stupid ad, but because there is an Asian boy as turned this stupid ad into a racially stereotypical ad pointing out that "Asians are good at math"

What We See

This first advertisement shows a cell phone that is opened up to show a beach party inside. To me this shows that having this phone is like being at a beach party with your friends. Fun and exciting and always in the loop of information. Buy this phone and you are hip and with it. Doubtful though, look at that stone age tool.

This second ad shows vegetables arranged into the form of some sort of animal, most likely a cow, given that it is a McDonald's advertisement. What is very interesting about this ad is that it leads us to believe the common saying "you are what you eat" in that the cows are fed the very best of vegetable to produce top quality meat. However, we all know that is a big fat lie. McDonald's meat is probably one of the worst "food" products you can consume.

This last advertisement shows this woman completely frozen over because she drank this Sprite. It leads us to believe that by drinking this soda, you will have a cool and refreshing experience because it is "Ice Blue"
I'm sure it tastes like normal sprite with a dash of some flavoring. Nothing exciting, but the way the ad is created leads us to believe that it is very refreshing.

History of Advertising

History of advertising lecture was quite interesting. I found the basic history points listed from the 1700s to today the most intriguing. It essentially showed how we have progressed advertising through the decades by means of growing technology in a nutshell. Talking brands was entertaining in that we really do live our lives in the world of brands. A lot of people, me being one of them, associate quality when we think of particular brands. However, just because a brand is popular, does not mean that it is a quality product. We associate quality with brands because they have lasted the test of time, but one thing I have noticed is that with time, things begin to get cheaper in quality because companies try to save money. Why make something for more, when it can be made cheaper. Almost every time I go to visit my grandmother she seems to mention how products of today are crap compared to fifty years ago. Her example is her beater (baking tool) she received as a wedding gift fifty-two years ago. Products today are made to break so the consumer will be forced to go and spend the money on a new product. It seems that is the way it is today, best we can do is to take care of what we have to save a little green.