Racial Stereotyping

Racism is still a problem we have today in society. One place people saw racial stereotyping was in advertising and they are still shown in ads today, but not as outrageous as before. I think it is fine to promote a quality of a race but there is always a fine line and advertisements should never cross that.

This ad is for a General Electric dishwasher and disposal. They show an African American dressed in a maids outfit talking about how her job of cleaning the kitchen just got easier. This is obviously racist because one, they are going back to days of slavery and how African Americans were the ones cleaning the house for White people. Another racist thing is that they are making her illiterate because she not speaking properly. The racial stereotype that is portrayed is that an uneducated African American would be using this product to clean your house and “you” would most likely be targeted as a white person.

Sadly some ads today still have racial stereotyping. For example this one for Nivea shows an African American holding a dismembered head and is in a stance like he is about to throw it. The words over the man say “re-civilize you” implying that this African American was once uncivilized and needs to be civilized again. The product is meant to groom yourself which is what they meant by “re-civilize yourself.”  Nivea apologized for this ad, said it was not mean to be racist and was taken down.   

I feel like if there are any hints of racist stereotyping in any ad they will most likely get pulled and no longer be shown. I still feel that there are racist stereotypes in ads but they are not as “out there” as they used to be. I think advertisers have to be aware, have ethical responsibilities, for their ads because one society should be past racism and two it has potential to upset many people.