Notice ads are changing in 2008? Anybody?

[Orchidflower]

1. Inside cover of this week's (5/17/08) "Time" magazine: white gal/Black guy with arms around each other like lover's do and looking happy together. Showing some progress here. (Yes, I know they have photos of mixed races, but not a "couple" that were mixed races and looking like lovers.)
2. Harper's Bazaar magazine (for you guys who don't know, this is an upscale woman's fashion mag) used to give clothing ideas grouped as: 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, BUT now they are adding ages 60's and 70's. Again, some progress is being made in this area, too.
3. Seeing more gray headed models all the time. Men with gray hair was pretty common, but not women with gray hair until lately. Again with the men with gray hair = sophisticated; women with gray hair = just old.) So, some progress for us older gals with gray hair is being made, too.
It's all good so far...

Advertising is definitely, definitely changing with the times. I just wondered if anyone else noticed?

 

[crazy connie]

The points I notice the most are:

See how much sympathy we have for economic hard times... "Look at our value!!!"

Earth friendly GREEN from non-earth friendly conglomorates.

The social change advertising is getting to the point of indigestion to me. Every 2nd couple is not gay or mixed race and every adoption is not from a 3rd world nation. All I can say is media is once again going overboard in general.

 

[samclem]

Yes, changing ads. In the 1970s you hardly ever saw ads with 14 YOs in various stages of undress and clearly less than 2 minutes short of copulation. Kids of this age used to be depicted in ads as kids enjoying innocent fun pastimes, now it is pouty lips, revealed hips, and nary an adult in sight.

Progress, I guess.

 

[Walt34]

Yes, changing ads. In the 1970s you hardly ever saw ads with 14 YOs in various stages of undress and clearly less than 2 minutes short of copulation. Kids of this age used to be depicted in ads as kids enjoying innocent fun pastimes, now it is pouty lips, reveled hips, and nary an adult in sight.

Progress, I guess.

Geezer.

I was born too early.

Yeah, ads are changing. I remember a Chrysler ad with some bikini bimbo stretched out on the roof, circa 1966 or thereabouts. Too un PC now.

Sex sells. It's hardwired and the marketers know it. Now their problem is how to be PC about it. And if they're selling droopy jeans to 14 year olds they don't care what you think.

 

[Nords]

Sex sells. It's hardwired and the marketers know it. Now their problem is how to be PC about it. And if they're selling droopy jeans to 14 year olds they don't care what you think.

I'm just glad that we've gotten past "heroin chic"...

 

[HFWR]

Most of the "lifestyle" mags are nothing but ads. You see an interesting article on the cover, but it takes an act of Congress to find it amongst all the ads for Tag Hauer watches...

And who really dresses like that?

 

[W2R]

Objectionable trends in advertising? I'll say.

There seem to be a huge number of TV ads lately that deal with impotence, yeast infections, irregular bowels, menstruation, bladder incontinence, and other physical conditions/afflictions in the area below the waist and above the knees.

Then there are the ads for drugs that I neither need nor want (though the ads would love to persuade me through suggestion and repetition that I am sick somehow and do).

Thank goodness for the "mute" button. Muting commercials and looking away has become almost a knee-jerk, Pavlovian response for me.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads = wasting 5 minutes a day with several patients explaining that they either don't need that drug, why it's no better than the generic at a tenth the price, and why not all symptoms warrant a designer drug (or any drug).

 

[Orchidflower]

Oh, dang! I forgot about all the green ads. Thanks for reminding.
Personally, I wish they would show MORE condom ads as a hint for folks to use them when needed. Takes the taboo off some when they show them in a commercial. If they would make the ads funny, more people would pay attention then.

 

[igsoy]

I almost never watch live tv. Always tape it and watch later. Ffwd through the ads, so I don't have to take in such nonsense.

 

[W2R]

Direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads = wasting 5 minutes a day with several patients explaining that they either don't need that drug, why it's no better than the generic at a tenth the price, and why not all symptoms warrant a designer drug (or any drug).

Also I'd imagine that you might get more hypochondriacs than you otherwise would, as a result of these ads. At any rate that's one reason I don't listen to them - - I'm concerned about the power of suggestion.

 

[tryan]

Yeah, can't even listen to the radio without hearing about the latest "male enhancement drug" ... need to turn it OFF before my 7 year old asks "Dad, what's bedroom performance?" And they run these damn things all day long!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I discovered I have restless leg syndrome. Before the ad I thought I was just a little bit over energetic and couldnt sit still.

 

[Texarkandy]

What I've noticed starting around last fall is a really big increase newscasters, talking heads, & TV ad actors with Obama-esque skin tones. You can't really peg them as being white, black, hispanic, or asian.

There's at least a couple ads (one car ad in particular) with male actors who are very Obama like (tall 40'ish male light brown bi-racial skin tone).

It's probably a good time to be in the tv industry for those with that look. Makes you wonder how many actors, spokesperson, reporters are not getting jobs because they appear too Caucasian or too African-American - in favor of those with a more PC skin tone du jour.

 

[Nords]

And who really dresses like that?

In my limited experience, "people" on Manhattan and in the coastal strip between Silicon Valley & LA.

I've seen a lot of interesting wardrobes in Yokosuka, Tokyo, & Bangkok too.

 

[mh]

What I've noticed starting around last fall is a really big increase newscasters, talking heads, & TV ad actors with Obama-esque skin tones. You can't really peg them as being white, black, hispanic, or asian.

There's at least a couple ads (one car ad in particular) with male actors who are very Obama like (tall 40'ish male light brown bi-racial skin tone).

It's probably a good time to be in the tv industry for those with that look. Makes you wonder how many actors, spokesperson, reporters are not getting jobs because they appear too Caucasian or too African-American - in favor of those with a more PC skin tone du jour.

I don't know about your local environment, but were I live
(ventura county, so. calif.) The White-guys-like-me segment is certainly
on the downward trend. And the younger the age group, the
more marked the trend. You can possibly surmise that some of that is
PC, but a lot of it is just plain 'ol reality, along with the
added bonus that the multiracial skin tone thing is fashionably
exotic at the moment.

 

[Texarkandy]

I don't know about your local environment, but were I live
(ventura county, so. calif.) The White-guys-like-me segment is certainly
on the downward trend. And the younger the age group, the
more marked the trend. You can possibly surmise that some of that is
PC, but a lot of it is just plain 'ol reality, along with the
added bonus that the multiracial skin tone thing is fashionably
exotic at the moment.

Now don't go baggin on my "local environment" or what you think I may "surmise" - particularly when you don't know what my "local environment" is, where or how frequently I travel, or where else I have lived.

Perhaps you should get out of Ventura County once in a while. Been to Iowa lately?

I have noted the greatest majority of the people in this country have distinctly caucasian, african-american, hispanic or asian features.

I have further noted of late that persons with multi-racial ethnic features are quite over-represented in the media compared to their percentage of the actual population. (Ventura Co. excepted of course )

My point was the change in what one sees on television as opposed to the actual US population & I wonder if there's not a bit of a PC multiculturalist agenda being pushed that does not really reflect reality (but then, when has TV ever reflected reality? )

 

[Texarkandy]

Multiracial scenes now common in TV ads
But critics say commercials gloss over complicated racial realities

Multiracial scenes now common in ads - Race & ethnicity - MSNBC.com

 

[samclem]

I wonder if there's not a bit of a PC multiculturalist agenda being pushed that does not really reflect reality

I think it is just advertisers and networks trying to appeal to as large an audience as possible. Especially as racial minorities gain more wealth (collectively and per capita), it is natural that advertisers will want to appeal to them. If there can be only one person in an ad, putting in someone whose race is ambiguous may appeal to a larger number of people (or, conversely, generate fewer negative feeling from those with racial prejudices than selection of a person who is obviously from a particular minority group).

 

[Texarkandy]

I think it is just advertisers and networks trying to appeal to as large an audience as possible. Especially as racial minorities gain more wealth (collectively and per capita), it is natural that advertisers will want to appeal to them. If there can be only one person in an ad, putting in someone whose race is ambiguous may appeal to a larger number of people (or, conversely, generate fewer negative feeling from those with racial prejudices than selection of a person who is obviously from a particular minority group).

In light of that - I repeat my wonderment at how many distinctly white and black reporters, talking heads, advertisement actors, etc might not be getting jobs of late in favor of those with a more multi-racial appearance.

Being the avid TV watcher I am (among other things) I've personally picked up on a noticeable increase just since late fall 07 - I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories, but I question the Obama candidacy isn't also being subtly pushed a bit by some media elites trying to get presumably racist white americans (65% of the US population) more comfortable with the idea of a "black" (though actually bi-racial) candidate in a postion of power through increased portrayals of bi-racial persons in the news & ads.

 

[samclem]

The increase in prominence of racially ambiguous images/people is a good thing. "Races" mean nothing to biologists, what we call "races" are distinctions only in the minds of man, they are not valid scientific distinctions. The idea of categorizing people by races and then making generalizations about each of these groupings (consciously or unconsciously) has done more to hold back the progress of mankind than almost anything. So, blurring the lines is great, hopefully it makes the whole idea of "tagging" people more difficult and less useful to the intellectually lazy.

 

[HFWR]

The increase in prominence of racially ambiguous images/people is a good thing. "Races" mean nothing to biologists, what we call "races" are distinctions only in the minds of man, they are not valid scientific distinctions. The idea of categorizing people by races and then making generalizations about each of these groupings (consciously or unconsciously) has done more to hold back the progress of mankind than almost anything. So, blurring the lines is great, hopefully it makes the whole idea of "tagging" people more difficult and less useful to the intellectually lazy.

If humans survive, in spite of themselves, they'll eventually be all one race anyway. Then we'll have to invent new and innovative ways to hate each other...

 

[samclem]

These "bi-racial" themes have been on TV for a long time!

 

[HFWR]

One of my favorite Star Trek episodes!

 

[W2R]

If humans survive, in spite of themselves, they'll eventually be all one race anyway. Then we'll have to invent new and innovative ways to hate each other...

Oh, oh , oh!!! I know what that will be.

It seems like tall people date and marry tall people, and short people date and marry short people. If they do, what a perfect lab experiment for increasing height variability!

Pretty soon, the 7' people will hate the 4' people, and vice versa. We'll have new races of giants and diminutive people.

(P.S. - - loved that episode, too! back in the day, I thought it was SO perceptive )