To be annoyed at McCains advert

[Shouldputcheeseonit]

Not just McCains doing it but theirs is particularly annoying. Companies now are really going for the adverts with mixed race families, L and G families (have any tried BT or Q?), and families with someone with a disability. I am an outspoken ambassador for inclusion and equality (and proud to say my family contains some of these elements) but I feel annoyed at how these companies are using this to advertise and make money. Car adverts, supermarkets, all sorts. It’s only this year they’ve started, it’s like they are using BLM and other areas of heightened awareness for their own gains, and it bothers me.
Rant over. Anyone else noticed?

I think a lot of it is to appeal to white/able bodied/straight etc people, NOT so much to the actual minorities that are in these ads iyswim

@Janegrey333

This is exactly what I meant too... have no issues whatsoever with different race/abilities/sex preference whatever being shown.. but my point is it now looks too forced which almost comes across as a bit offensive in itself

@BlueisthenewGrey

VodselForDinner your comment above is exactly why I cannot get on board with the current movement.

Your comment "Maybe somewhere there’s a little girl or boy out there looking at tv and thinking “that familyeating shit chipsis just like us!”" actually fills me with dread as a mixed race female.

In 2020 I had hoped that there would be no them and us.

I hoped that the world would just see people for who they are, not the colour of their skin, who respect each other and are treated no different.

It's what I hate about companies who are doing this, they are not doing it because they are striving for change, or putting real policies in place to make positive change. They are doing it because its the latest marketing buzz.

I say bring on inclusively, but it also needs to represent the population, all ages, sexes and various groups to be inclusive.

I worry about the working class boys and their lack of opportunities as much as I do about black boys opportunities, both with common issues, but also different issues to tackle. As a country, what are we going to do longer term, how do we identify the issues if we cannot objectively look at the wider issues and discuss them?

The issues in the UK are different than the USA, I have travelled to areas in the USA with a large black population and I was horrified at the lifestyle differences, the UK does not have that issue.

Until we lose the them and us, we are so far from inclusivity that most people ignore the real issues in the UK and think that we are on course to solve the United Kingdom's diversity.

this. well said

We noticed this trend of inclusivity too. We have also noticed an increase in the number of actors with red / auburn / sandy hair in the ads. Nearly every ad has at least one.

And beards. Loads of beards.

I like it, my grandparents had a mixed marriage in the 50s. I can't imagine how shocked they'd be to see couples that looked like them on the TV, it's not something they saw when they were alive. Ditto my own family, my dad isn't white, we're all various shades. We exist.

I get that they’re taking action too late, why didn’t they 20 years ago, for example? (because it was controversial and might harm sales performance based on the views of wider society, and they have shareholders who are likely straight white old men) but I can’t object to something with an overall positive outcome. Yes they’re only doing it now because the general population is supportive but it’s still a positive change and that opens the door for further growth.
Media plays a key role in societal development but I’m not sure I can get mad at an oven chip company for not leading that.

@duemarch2021 are you from an ethnic minority yourself? Interested why it seems forced to have a mixed race couple pretending to be a family compared to all while. They're all actors!

[quote Frazzledme]@duemarch2021 are you from an ethnic minority yourself? Interested why it seems forced to have a mixed race couple pretending to be a family compared to all while. They're all actors![/quote]
It just goes to show that the point of the advert is lost when we start to look at the actors portraying families instead of the 'family on the advert'

One black guy with a beard is on loads of adverts. When an ad comes on with him in it, I concentrate on him only and the ad becomes irrelevant. That's the unpower of advertising methinks :)

Speaking as a mixed race woman, I've noticed that many ads are of mixed raced families (dad black and mum white). I wished there were more diverse ethnic minorities shown, e.g. all black, asian, Chinese families etc.

If these companies really cared, they'd fill their board rooms with BAME, LGBT and people with disabilities. But they don't. That's why it annoys me. It's like a minimum effort thing to get social media likes

Probably and also trying to appeal to a wealthy "right on" progressive middle class demographic

What irritates me is that the sheer numbers of these ads are not representative the demographic of the whole country. They might be representative of London, and a couple of other cities, but not the country as a whole

@Frazzledme

No I'm not... but the post isn't necessarily just about ethnic minorities...the OP mentioned sexual identity and pointed out how a lot of adverts now seem to be aimed at gay, lesbian or trans gender people ..So I'm just agreeing because I have also noticed this recently. I have no issue with this being shown but I'm agreeing that it seems to be on most adverts now which seems a bit forced..

@Frazzledme

Also, I haven't once mentioned anything about mixed race families in previous posts. I didn't even realise this was about race... maybe I've read the post wrong

@Frazzledme

Oh I've just re-read the OP.. she does mention race sorry yes.. but i focused more on the fact that alot of adverts have same sex couples or trans gender people... but yes race is also used....and i will say again.... I am diverse and not discriminative but was agreeing that it seems to be on most adverts which seems like it is being done to jump on the 'band wagon' and not because they actually believe in the equality.... which is annoying to me

Guess what, the vast majority in this country are straight white people. Annoying , isn’t it.

Let's be honest, these companies are signalling their virtue, but, like any company, it's all about the dollar. The reasons will not be because they believe in cultural political progression, no, there will be a financial incentive somewhere as to why they do it. Probably these ads make wealthy middle class liberals, with money to burn, feel all nice and cosy about themselves and less guilty about all the dosh they have

Until we lose the them and us, we are so far from inclusivity that most people ignore the real issues in the UK and think that we are on course to solve the United Kingdom's diversity

"Solve the diverstity"?
This is a very middle class, yes them again, preoccupation though isn't it.

The middle class, who the ads target for their disposable income, like to see themselves as the moral guardians of the unsophisticated masses, progressive gurus to the problematic, in their eyes, working class who will not do as they're told, not use the right pronouns or adopt the latest politically correct fad.

This i think is all wrapped up in middle class progressive money guilt and the big companies have latched onto this. The MCs have money but they feel bad about it and so have to purge the guilt by projecting it onto the proles, who, in their suspicious and sinfully greedy eyes, are all smelly Brexit voting, racist homophobic yobs who inexplicaply to them, also smashed the red wall.

The reality though is that the plebs are all just getting on with life nornally, mixing with each other, their neighbours, colleagues, friendly down the Wetherspoons with their white/black/brown/gay/straight mates. They dont have to "solve" or prove anything or make up problems that don't exist

I read an interesting discussion a while back and wish I could remember where. One person was complaining about unequal representation in a film ("token POC") and the other pointed out that it actually reflected the % of that demographic in the population fairly accurately. It certainly made me 🤔 about the topic.

Nobody ever moans about there not being enough Native Americans or Aboriginal people on British TV, for example, and I can only assume it's because they're vanishingly rare amongst the UK population.

Ilovemypantry Totally agree
It's become so ridiculous that it doesn't represent real life atall.

@Legoandloldolls

I would like to see more disabled people actually.

To appeal to your target audience you have to be relatable no?

I was talking to somebody about this the other day actually, after seeing the new Tia Maria advert — they're very much making a point of showing different people.

Anyway, they show somebody with a prosthetic lower leg. The person I was talking to is deaf, and was saying that not all adverts work for showing all types of disability — in a fast-paced advert like the Tia Maria one, you need an immediately visible disability (or aid), while in a food-based one around a table, you might not notice a disability that affects mobility.

She was saying that it's difficult to show somebody deaf without a crash zoom in on their hearing aid or similar. And of course, invisible disabilities are quite hard to show 'naturally' in an advert, because you have to draw attention to it.

I think it is definitely something that could be worked on. Slightly different, but I saw an ad for something on Facebook the other day with somebody with a blood glucose sensor which I thought was great; that it was showed as normally as (for example) glasses.

Maltesers do a good one with two deaf ladies

Maybe somewhere there’s a little girl or boy out there looking at tv and thinking “that family eating shit chips is just like us!”

Inclusion and diversity are fantastic.

Are they?
Away from the trendy multi ethnic buzz of the London metro bubble and from its advertising office blocks...maybe there's some white working class kid in a former mining or steel town like Rotherham, who sits gazing at the TV thinking "this says nothing to me about my life".
But then the industrial wastelands of the UK don't have money to spend do they

If these companies really cared, they'd fill their board rooms with BAME, LGBT and people with disabilities. But they don't. That's why it annoys me. It's like a minimum effort thing to get social media likes.

But businesses' main goal is ultimately to make profit, and 'diversity' is just a marketing tool. Due to structural inequality, there are sadly likely to be less BAME people with economics degrees, MBAs, etc, who would fit the role.

I was talking to dh about this some time ago. We are a mixed family and even though they say its about equality, most of the times I've noticed some subtle hints of stereotyping. For example, I saw this poster about getting help for the British citizenship exams, and the people on the poster where a black dad and his kid. Or most posters about small loans have poc in them. As for bad marketing, I saw yesterday this recipe book by Holly Willoughby with what seems to be a mixed toddler feeding her as a cover.

Oh OP, even worse some adverts have men cooking or cleaning rather than the women doing it, how terrible, society itself will never recover from this.

Obviously you must ignore me as I’m brown and gay so nothing more than a mere ‘token’.

Fucking hell they can’t win can they?!