To ask if you’ve noticed this? Race-related.

[OffRampHilton]

I grew up (not UK) in an area that was entirely populated by white people but that’s changed since I was a child (I’m 40) and I’ve moved away to live in a big city so my friends and colleagues now are very racially diverse. I know couples of all races/ethnicity from same-race/ethnicity to every mix you can think of.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been really happy to see more diversity on tv, especially in terms of race. I grew up seeing nothing but white people on tv shows, unless it was a programme specifically about black or Asian families. I remember the fact that Coronation St was introducing their first non-white family was covered in the newspaper. The default was white people unless non-white people had a specific “reason” to be there- and that reason was pretty much always race-related.

I’m noticing lots more diversity, especially on ads. However, I still don’t see a lot of black or Asian families. I see mixed families where one parent (normally the mother, for some reason), is white, then a black parent (usually a dad) and two mixed children (normally a boy and a girl!). Great, it certainly represents a lot of families, but there seems to be a lack of depiction of families that are entirely black or entirely Asian or entirely anything other than white.

From paying attention to a few ad breaks tonight, I saw the following, in order of most common-

White families.
Mixed-race families.

I didn’t see many wholly non-white families.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Also, if I’ve used any clumsy wording in this, please don’t jump on me, but educate me instead.

Asians and black people in adverts (if younger) are placed in nice white English middle class homes that so often don’t represent homes I have been too

I’m part Asian we mostly love a bit of bling that is never shown I guess too tacky. All my friends from Caribbean and African backgrounds will have art work that is representative of their cultural as well as an IKEA bookcase (I’m not saying this is everyone) but that wouldn’t be shown

Our cultures are only really shown in sitcoms often where we are taking the piss out of ourselves the plastic cover on the sofa for example in Citizen Khan

@picsinred

"Everyone in England, indeed the entire UK knows about the Tesco lady, it was a high profile ad campaign marred by racist rantings."

I'm in England and have no idea what you're referring to.

I also don't know the tesco lady, I'm so curious now.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/11/19/tesco-advert-black-woman/%3famp

Tesco lady

I didn’t know about the Tesco lady either but I’m totally rubbish with adverts to be fair but she’s very beautiful and it’s totally shit and unfair what happened to her after reading your link!

Thanks LateAtTate

[quote Notadramallama]@picsinred

"Everyone in England, indeed the entire UK knows about the Tesco lady, it was a high profile ad campaign marred by racist rantings."

I'm in England and have no idea what you're referring to.[/quote]
Me neither. Thanks for the link @lateattate

I never heard of it either but then I don’t really watch tv

@mustlovegin some companies have massive budgets this client was a charity and we use the biggest image bank and believe me the image banks are more American than UK. I honestly don’t know what the answer is because there are so many different people in the Uk and then there is gender and sexuality and people with disabilities etc so I feel we end up serving no one. But you have to start somewhere it’s just a shame everyone wanting to show everyone immediately in one advert or one homepage rather than perhaps a year long campaign for example really showing people and the wonderful mix we all are .

[quote Smallkeys]@mustlovegin some companies have massive budgets this client was a charity and we use the biggest image bank and believe me the image banks are more American than UK. I honestly don’t know what the answer is because there are so many different people in the Uk and then there is gender and sexuality and people with disabilities etc so I feel we end up serving no one. But you have to start somewhere it’s just a shame everyone wanting to show everyone immediately in one advert or one homepage rather than perhaps a year long campaign for example really showing people and the wonderful mix we all are .[/quote]
Do you mean that cramming everyone into a single ad costs the same as a year long campaign?
Honestly as pp mentioned before a lot of things are very simple (like a 30second washing powder as) and don’t need tons of diversity.

Ive never heard of the Tesco advert row lady either but then I just tend to use catch up, on demand, Netflix & Amazon.

Ive never heard of HITC either.

Going back to the main topic, I know more asian people than black people. Actually, I dont know any black people come to think of it. I live in the shires though (back of beyond). So TV representation does seem quite off.

Representation is tricky. Do you represent society as it is, or as you'd like it to be?

Almost every cop show now being made shows black women in senior posts, sometimes the most senior. I don't know how many black women actually do hold these positions in England but in Scotland it is none. It's great to see diversity on screen but showing a Glasgow police department with a black person in charge looks like what we want, not what we have.

Ditto rural Wales. Sorry if my grasp of demographics is off.

A chocolate advert voiced over by a black lady.

How did you know the voiceover artist was a black lady?

That’s such a weird question. Are you from somewhere not very diverse? While obviously not all black people ‘sound black’ (which would be a sweeping nonsense anyway, hence the ‘’), you’d have to have a proper tin ear not to be able to discern qualities of speech that tell you someone is likely to be black. (I couldn’t describe such qualities in technical terms but I can hear them, in the same way I can discern qualities in music that I lack the language to describe.)

I grew up in a diverse area of London with exposure to voices from all over the place so my ear is quite well trained. I’m the Henry Higgins de nos jours, me

@OhWhyNot Asians and black people in adverts (if younger) are placed in nice white English middle class homes that so often don’t represent homes I have been too

Are you saying that non-whites can’t be middle class? Many white people don’t live like actors in adverts. I think you are looking for the words “middle class homes” rather than “white English middle class homes.”

No I meant white English middle class homes you can change that to British but that usually gets pulled up

People I know who are from Asian/Caribbean/African backgrounds have a bit of bling or there is cultural artwork
as pointed out before this won’t be everyone but this isn’t shown

Yes I know my family is white working class too (I’m mixed)

To be fair, in soaps like Corrie and Eastenders, ethnic and class-based lives are portrayed more realistically. Not much time in an advert that wants to appeal to as many people as possible. It can also be seen as stereotyping if done badly. Greeks also did the 'keeping plastic cover on the sofa' thing. In our age of non-humour, this could be seen as patronising unless made by a Greek person.

On another note, Black music (shorthand for all types) and dance is massively influential in UK culture and in advertising.

@OhWhyNot

No I meant white English middle class homes you can change that to British but that usually gets pulled up

People I know who are from Asian/Caribbean/African backgrounds have a bit of bling or there is cultural artwork
as pointed out before this won’t be everyone but this isn’t shown

Yes I know my family is white working class too (I’m mixed)

Your friends are just artsy people. I’m a middle class Asian (class defined by my salary not my mannerism). So are a lot of my friends because we went to a prestigious university. None of us have even a hint of bling or cultural artwork. Probably some cactuses and cute anime pieces - is that what you mean by bling?

Now our kitchens are a different matter ... every Asian will have a rice cooker!

Also to add hanging up art is a skill and not every English person has that skill let alone every single person of a certain ethnicity

@stayathomer

Am white and I find myself getting more and more pissed off at the fact that there's still such a disconnect now on tv, not on ads, but look at big budget action films- where are all the black leads? Look at marvel, dc? Then you look at all the big shows of years past- friends, satc, buffy, new girl, big bang theory, how I met your mother ... it just drives me nuts. Also (white) people feel the need to mention Idris Elba on just about every show as someone they like, it just comes off pathetic to me.

Big studios need to think of their international markets - China is probably the biggest and black actors have little to no appeal to them.

Don't shoot the messenger - I am not Chinese and have nothing to do with marketing but I know academics who work in the field and this is what their research shows.

I did say not everyone.

Some are arty some are not and very mixed backgrounds as in class. I don’t think there is a skill to hanging up art some can certainly do it more artistically others just hammer a nail into the wall or use those fantastic sticky things.

Oh and yes to the rice cooker though I moved on to the microwave one (so not really a rice cooker as such but makes great rice)

None of my BAME friends have any art or bling that has anything to do with their heritage on their walls etc
Their parents (who are in their 70s or 80s) do as they were the ones who emigrated here.

You’ve not been in many Asian houses I take it?

By Asian I mean Pakistani/Bangladeshi etc

Yes I meant South Asian