National Stereotypes in Advertising

I’m not quite sure if this was a real commercial by VW . . . I’ve never seen it on TV, so it may have been banned before it aired. From the Arab stereotypes in this ad—especially a really negative one involving suicide bombers—I’m sure you can see why!!

I also found this PSA anti-drug campaign commercial from the ‘80’s to present a really racist slant . . . check it out.
I can’t believe this one!! This seems to wholly embody negative stereotypes—and poorly represented images of the ‘Other’ that show how non-whites can often be stereotypically linked to base activities, lack of morals, [...]

This Italian commercial for laundry soap was so blatantly racist it really reminded me of the tradecards for soap to “wash” the blackness off the African American shown in the picture . . . but this commercial presents the opposite view.
A woman is doing laundry, and her white Italian, hairy and not-so-muscular boyfriend/husband wanders into [...]

When we watched the Quiznos Subs commercial featuring the really weird creatures, I was reminded of the PSP commercials they had like two years ago.
These commercials used animals (and dustballs) with voice-overs to advertise the PSP, and I found it odd that I could match a race to a certain accent/slang.  Is that wrong?
What race [...]

Does anyone know that current commercial where a bunch of business guys are sort of a marching band and they walk through all of these sort of mundane scenes, playing music? I couldn’t here it (it was on a TV in a busy room) and I didn’t catch the name of the shampoo being sold, [...]

I meant to post this after the presentation on Mexican Americans in Advertising..
I remember an old television commercial for Diet Coke featuring Salma Hayek (if anyone can find will you send post it? I’ve looked everywhere on the internet). She’s in the kitchen of this really busy restaurant quickly eating and enjoying the fancy [...]

Another recent campaign for AIDS. These were series of print ads featuring celebrities. I saw them in magazines like Cosmo…I dont know what other magazines they might have appeared in. The last one with Gwyneth Paltrow was especially controversial. I say they are patronizing….
ALL of the ads can be seen on this [...]

So, adding to the recent discussion about social causes and commodification… What do you all think of that as it relates to the (Product)Red campaign? I think most people know what it’s all about, helping fight AIDS in Africa. You can read more about it on the website:
www.joinred.com
Anyways… Is THIS okay? Are businesses taking advantage [...]

The previous post about Kenneth Cole/anti-AIDS campaign got me thinking: what is acceptable when it comes to commodifying a social cause in order to sell a product? I came to the conclusion in the Kenneth Cole scenario that it’s justified (though not admirable) to use a sympathetic cause such as AIDS in order to boost [...]

So over spring break my friends and I went to Disneyland. While there we decided that we just HAD to go on the “It’s a Small World” ride. You know, it’s a small world afterall, la di da puppets singing and all.
You would not BELIEVE the national stereotypes on this ride! In fact… that’s ALL [...]