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Discourse on Race and Advertising

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Discourse on Race and Advertising
Essay # 4

Three selected Commercials discourse on Race

There is definitely a discourse about race and advertising. That is because stereotypes are made by the media based on an advertiser’s agenda. Often time’s race is treated as a label that defines the action or characteristics of an individual. Three selected commercials that give a discussion on the subject are, “Ashton Kutcher Dating Video”, “Sealy’s Mattress”, and “Hillshire Farm commercial”. The objective about an advertisements propaganda and representation of racial identity is taken into consideration in these three commercials. All three videos give the white male more diverse identities. White male identity in the three commercials is beyond the masculine spectrum, and not limited like the minority actors set stereotypes.
In the first video entitled “Ashton Kutcher Dating Video”(Popchips), Ashton Kutcher is a white male who has the privilege to take on multiple identities. He plays five different bachelors who are seeking romance. One of the bachelors is Indian and four are white males who are given completely different identities despite being straight male bachelors. In the commercial it is important to note the “World Wide lovers” message that is shown, which shows its aim is to be heard by the entire world. The first bachelor by the name of Raj is Kutchers Indian impersonation. He has an Indian accent and is shown wearing traditional Indian attire. He is also an producer of Bollywood which is an Hindi Language film producer. The second bachelor is Nigel who Ashtor portrays as a Rastafarian white male with dreads. The third bachelor is Darl whose age is unknown; which, and very good at expressing himself gives off a female stereotype of a mysterious and feminine attribute of “never ask a women her age”. His hair is also dyed platinum blond, and appears to have a suppose diva like attitude. He also bends the gender binary by appearing to express interest in money, implying that he may be a gold

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