Representation of Ethnicity
Throughout the media, ethnicity is presented through the use of; stereotypes, otherness, exoticism, tokenism and whitewashing.
In some adverts, the ethnic minorities are portrayed as being regular everyday people, without anything that wildly sets them apart from the crowd. However, in others, they can be portrayed as wildly extravagant which pushes the boundaries of racism. For example, in a the skittles giraffe advert, a presumably Jamaican man is portrayed both negatively and positively through the use of exoticism. In the advert, the man is seen as incredibly happy and seems to not have a care in the world; this indicates that the man is an 'uncle tom' figure. The man is on a small island in the middle of no where, and is dressed rather poorly, this portrays another stereotype of Jamaican decent, that they are normally poor, the seemingly agricultural clothing the man wears defends this point.
Ethnic minorities are viewed again as wild and strange in another advert by McDonalds, which is selling their new pineapple sticks. In the advert, another man with Jamaican decent is shown, once again in agricultural clothing, dancing in the jungle and waiting for the pineapples to grow. Not only in the man in the jungle, which can already be viewed as insulting and racist, but there is literally a monkey dancing right next to him, which may have been an accident, but it is presumably rather difficult to miss something like that.
Ethnicity is further explored by an AXE advert, called "Welcome to the Jungle". In this advert,l the urban jungle is portrayed as being frightening and to be feared, this is done through the use of stereotypes, otherness and small amounts of whitewashing. The first thing seen is a car with neon lights drifting in a large open space, the camera moves at a walking pace at eye level, creating the assumption that we are looking through the eyes of someone. The audience then sees a gang of black males, that are portrayed as threatening and intimidating, immediately engaging a stereotype; the men also have two rottweilers, which are viewed as an aggressive dog. Moving further through the urban jungle we see a group of Latina females, the women are in their early 20's and dressed in revealing clothing, showing the stereotype of the sex object, they also wear heavy makeup and seem to be poor; their posture is also sexual. The camera then moves to a rich middle aged white male with paparazzi surrounding him, he is getting in a car that visibly has five women in it, the women are shown as the mans possessions and sex objects instead of people, this is shown by the way the man rests his palm on one of the women's knee. The man seems to be inviting the audience/person into the car with him, in a somewhat creepy manner. A group of middle aged women are then shown in the street, appearing to be on their way to/from a hen party, this engages stereotypes of middle aged white women being loud in groups. The camera then pans to a policeman on horseback running towards the viewer, this can once again be seen as threatening by the size of the horse in general. The viewer then sees a group of masked men dancing in unison, the manner of this dance is not particularly threatening so I cannot say if it is a stereotype, but it definitely gives off a sense of otherness. The camera turns to a man being thrown out of a door of what is assumed to be a bar, this is because the man is an early 20's white male that seems to be drunk; this is then confirmed when another white male is thrown out of a window, once again seemingly drunk. The camera once again shown the masked dancers, but this time running up to the camera, this time in a threatening or competitive way. It then starts to rain money which indicates a level of power and wealth, in the money is a group of models that are all white and surrounded in paparazzi. The camera then moves through smoke to show a group of various powerful and wealthy people, but all shown in different way, either because of; expensive clothing, threatening gestures, muscle, fashionable dogs, money or the amount of photos being taken of them. Whitewashing is used in this scene because all of the wealthy powerful people are white. It is then revealed to the viewers that they were looking through the eyes of a young woman, who looks surprised and to some extent excited, then another reveal that she looks that way because shes now looking at a guy, who is white and seems to be late 20's. This male seems to "save" the girl from the unknown urban jungle.
In some adverts, the ethnic minorities are portrayed as being regular everyday people, without anything that wildly sets them apart from the crowd. However, in others, they can be portrayed as wildly extravagant which pushes the boundaries of racism. For example, in a the skittles giraffe advert, a presumably Jamaican man is portrayed both negatively and positively through the use of exoticism. In the advert, the man is seen as incredibly happy and seems to not have a care in the world; this indicates that the man is an 'uncle tom' figure. The man is on a small island in the middle of no where, and is dressed rather poorly, this portrays another stereotype of Jamaican decent, that they are normally poor, the seemingly agricultural clothing the man wears defends this point.
Ethnic minorities are viewed again as wild and strange in another advert by McDonalds, which is selling their new pineapple sticks. In the advert, another man with Jamaican decent is shown, once again in agricultural clothing, dancing in the jungle and waiting for the pineapples to grow. Not only in the man in the jungle, which can already be viewed as insulting and racist, but there is literally a monkey dancing right next to him, which may have been an accident, but it is presumably rather difficult to miss something like that.
Ethnicity is further explored by an AXE advert, called "Welcome to the Jungle". In this advert,l the urban jungle is portrayed as being frightening and to be feared, this is done through the use of stereotypes, otherness and small amounts of whitewashing. The first thing seen is a car with neon lights drifting in a large open space, the camera moves at a walking pace at eye level, creating the assumption that we are looking through the eyes of someone. The audience then sees a gang of black males, that are portrayed as threatening and intimidating, immediately engaging a stereotype; the men also have two rottweilers, which are viewed as an aggressive dog. Moving further through the urban jungle we see a group of Latina females, the women are in their early 20's and dressed in revealing clothing, showing the stereotype of the sex object, they also wear heavy makeup and seem to be poor; their posture is also sexual. The camera then moves to a rich middle aged white male with paparazzi surrounding him, he is getting in a car that visibly has five women in it, the women are shown as the mans possessions and sex objects instead of people, this is shown by the way the man rests his palm on one of the women's knee. The man seems to be inviting the audience/person into the car with him, in a somewhat creepy manner. A group of middle aged women are then shown in the street, appearing to be on their way to/from a hen party, this engages stereotypes of middle aged white women being loud in groups. The camera then pans to a policeman on horseback running towards the viewer, this can once again be seen as threatening by the size of the horse in general. The viewer then sees a group of masked men dancing in unison, the manner of this dance is not particularly threatening so I cannot say if it is a stereotype, but it definitely gives off a sense of otherness. The camera turns to a man being thrown out of a door of what is assumed to be a bar, this is because the man is an early 20's white male that seems to be drunk; this is then confirmed when another white male is thrown out of a window, once again seemingly drunk. The camera once again shown the masked dancers, but this time running up to the camera, this time in a threatening or competitive way. It then starts to rain money which indicates a level of power and wealth, in the money is a group of models that are all white and surrounded in paparazzi. The camera then moves through smoke to show a group of various powerful and wealthy people, but all shown in different way, either because of; expensive clothing, threatening gestures, muscle, fashionable dogs, money or the amount of photos being taken of them. Whitewashing is used in this scene because all of the wealthy powerful people are white. It is then revealed to the viewers that they were looking through the eyes of a young woman, who looks surprised and to some extent excited, then another reveal that she looks that way because shes now looking at a guy, who is white and seems to be late 20's. This male seems to "save" the girl from the unknown urban jungle.
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