I know this will sound racist, but...
 

I notice in tv commercials, there is the "smart" character and the "dumb" character, for some simple comedy relief.

In almost every commercial now, when black actors are cast, the black actor always portrays the "smart" character and or the character in charge with the higher knowledge. In that same commercial, the fall guy, the "dumb" role, is always played by a white actor.

In a commercial where a black actor is cast, I rarely see the black actor doing something stupid, buying the wrong product, or isn't the owner, boss or representative of the business being advertised.

I always see plenty of dumb ass white folks making mistakes and playing the role of the fall guy. It's amazing how dumb white people are around black people in real life, so I guess they have to keep that notion flowing in commercials as well.

Not all commercials, but I would est at least 80 to 90% of the commercials that have black actors in them, black actors play the dominant intelligent role.

Bottom line is this, is the black community so overly sensitive that if a commercial came out where the black actor did something stupid vs what the white actor did, the entire black community would rise together and complain and boycott the product and television station that broadcast it?

Are companies afraid to cast black actors in the comedic fall guy role?

Yes, I know it's "white world" and whites own all the businesses and are all evil, blah, blah, blah, but if all of us can't laugh at ourselves, then how messed up are we all? A commercial can't feature a black man choosing the wrong detergent when the white man chooses the correct one because that is racist? Must black roles always be the correct role, the leading role, the role of reason, and never playing the other side of the coin?

I would think the black community would be upset with all the image coddling white America is giving them. You never see many Latin Americans in commercials, and the USA is over 1/6 Latino. That's 50 million plus Latino population vs 39 million black population, yet there are far more black actors in commercials than Latinos and when black actors are featured, they are most always in the role of reason.

I think its sad that the intelligent black community won't tolerate a black actor in the fall guy roll in commercials where white actors are also featured. All this racial "tip toeing" is creating the opposite effect in the common goal of equality and creating fear within the way products are advertised.

Whats in your wallet?

I agree for the most part. Pandering is never a good thing but a positive image has to come from somewhere I guess. Kanye and Suge Knight are not very good role models imho. Of course neither is Bieber boy. :1orglaugh

I see the same thing with Latino-focused advertising but I think that is changing. Until now it has been a separate society in a way, sitting right alongside mainstream American society. Now there is more integration as new generations are born. Hopefully for US it is a good thing.

Yeah the minority is rarely the dumb character in advertising which I understand.

What would be better is having no dumb characters.

Remember the commercial, "Where's the beef?" ... you can make good commercials without making someone else look inferior in some way.

They don't want to do anything wacist

I would hope for clever and funny as well. :2 cents:

I hate "dumb" commercials,for example there was recent ad where basically "young people" were calling out "old people" how they hate them and being envy because they re "young". Annoying as fuck.

who cares? they do the same with women portrayed as smart, and men portrayed as dumb cunts who can't tie their own shoelaces without female help. If it helps with their insecurities, have at it is what I say.

You're right. I see that too. It's just annoying.

Hasn't it always been that way? Even in TV series. Going way back to Sanford & Son, All in the Family, later Benson - the Black characters were hip, sassy, intelligent - the Whites were racist, foolish, uncool. Jesus, if you were a white character on Sanford & Son you had the IQ of Corky. Remember the unhip, white cop?

Self-hating Whites, always the losers in the Politically Correct Parade.

Welcome to white guilter liberal scum pol;it correct world. Disgrace.

Commercials are best enjoyed muted and ignored. Like all ads. Now lets get busy advertising!

Exactly.

The funny thing is that whites will become the minority in the near future, during our lifetimes. What happens then?

dont worry when the tv show comes back on all is right in the universe. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Whites are 77% of the USA. People have been saying this forever but as people get educated their brithrate drops.

:1orglaugh :thumbsup

You talk about being able to take a joke; but you made this thread because you can't take a joke.

:2 cents:

Less people will spend all day typing "wacist" in threads.

:1orglaugh

African Americans generally have deeper more professional (and I guess you can say educated) sounding voices and that's why they are responsible for a lot of voice over and narration work. James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, etc. Name one white dude that has as commanding a voice as the three I just mentioned. I certainly can't.

Advertisers try to stay ahead of the curve. White males have been losing "power" since 1860. Now jewish, black, latino, and women have a much larger share of the "power".

They're not doing that from a conspiracy. If I had to speculate I'd say it is a new money effect. Those new groups are spending, not conserving. Therefore it makes sense to advertise to them. I never understood why you had to insult someone to sell a product. That probably means the product sucks.

My guess is that you can see the commercials you ask for when racism is a distant memory in the future.... about 1800 years from now....

Patrick Stewart
Sam Elliott
Al Michaels
Walter Cronkite
Keifer Sutherland

:thumbsup:thumbsup

Any one of those dudes can do a voice over and you'll never guess who they are in a million years. Keifer Sutherland does all the voice over for Nissan Commercials. Not many people would guess that. You put Morgan Freeman's voice on it and you instantly know who it is. Your examples just fortified my point.

You can do that now on Hulu. Its better than not having a choice thats for sure.

Your opinion.

All of the ones I listed have very distinctive voices that I'm sure the average person recognizes immediately. If you don't know it's Sam Elliott's voice for the Dodge Ram truck commercials - I suggest you venture out of the cave more often.

I'm not denying Freeman and James Earl Jones have extremely distinctive voices (both are favorites of mine...I could listen to either of them read the phonebook) - but I don't agree that only blacks have 'that quality' when it comes to voiceover work.

Millions would easily pick out Kronkite's voice within the first few words...he spanned generations.

if you think spike lee is bad try watching the bbc

Sanford & Son and All in the Family are based on British sitcoms with a totally white cast, it must have been changed that way on the American remakes to make some kind of point to the US viewers.