Ten years ago this would have been unthinkable: a New York City Subway ad campaign that didn’t include a single black person.
You can’t have ridden the Subway in the last month without having seen this full-car ad campaign from Halls:
Notice anything? Pretty white, right?
I mean, the chicks do look Italian or some shit — certainly swarthy enough for Hitler’s ovens, as my grandma used to say … it’s not like they could pass for the Aryan youth brigade, but the point remains: There sure as hell aren’t any black people in these ads.
In 2008, a politically-incorrect omission like this would have been career suicide for the creative director that approved it.
Even a year and a half ago, before Obama’s election, we’d never have seen a campaign like this — a key Blognigger post addressed the phenomenon succinctly.
The rules, up to this point, have been simple:
-Every advertisement has to feature a black person — but IN SOME CASES you can get away with just having a Latino.
-The only exception to this rule is if the ad features a robber, homeless person, or other villain, in which case they have to be white — IN SOME CASES, you can get away with just having them be a Latino.
I forget which SBTVC’er it was that recently teased (paraphrasing), “It’s a great time to be white: with Tiger Woods, the poster-boy for the myth of multi-culturalism, laying in ruins and Obama’s approval rating at an all time low, the myth of multi-cultural supremacy is failing!”
Of course, it’s actually the exact opposite that has lead to this development:
This Ad’s existence reflects the cultural shift that’s starting to take place: Society is seeing Black People as falling off the ENDANGERED list.
“They’re OK, they can take care of themselves — they have the WHITE HOUSE!”
… And as a result of this sentiment, it’s starting to be socially acceptable not to over-kiss Black People’s™ asses.
You can bet that in the dozens of meetings that went into creating this ad campaign, at some point a discussion like this occurred:
1: “OK, I get what you’re saying about the accentuated red noses, but isn’t everyone gonna look like a fuckin; clown?”
2: “Well yeah, it’s a fine line. We’ll have to walk it closely.”
1: “Ok, another issue: How is the red-nose treatment going to look on the token black guy?”
2: “Hm, yeah. That might be tough.”
1: “Let’s escalate.”
2: “OK.”
—
Big Boss 3: “Listen, I’ll have to run this by Mitch & Murray, but here’s what I’m thinkin’: It’s 2009 and Blacks own the White House. I’m thinkin’ it’s possible, given the climate AND the fact that a black face is inconvenient for this campaign, that we approach the client and suggest that we leave a black guy OUT of the ads…. [CRASH!] Careful! Is he OK?!”
2: “Just get him the smelling-salts, same thing happened in November.”
Social developments must be measured in micro-movements, and this is clearly one to study: an ad with no black people…. No pandering! MLK would be proud.
Wait — I spoke too soon — looks like if you walk through enough subway cars, you can find one not-white face. Here it is:
You totally called it. Historically Endangered Peoples, get to the back of the bus; there’s a new guy here and he really needs our help.
plus a million points. very good B.
could have pointed a lout but this was concise and not bad.
god, I hate niggers.
they all look jewish to me.
fucking great article, nice banger at the end.
i used to be racist but now im not so im gonna condemn you.
shame! shame!
fag.
fucking great. no comment.
Think he’s Muslim though? Could be Indian as well, but your point’s well taken.
The blacks have left the advertising world and now dominate the talent contests on TV. I imagine it is some form of social evolution at work.
” Black People’s™ ”
Who owns the trademark on this? Jesse Jackson? Will Smith? Sinbad?
Sweet post dude.
Yes. A thousand times yes.
i swear i’ve seen this and before including a very light black skinned woman
ad*
haha good one.
if I want half-baked ideas on race and/or class, i’ll subscribe to an academic journal
this sucked
White people are just gross and get sick all the time because they have bad hygene.
Why advertise to the wrong demographic? Halls don’t sell rimz.
it’s because black people don’t get red noses when sick
Shit is Anti-Semitic as a concentration camp signage-stealing Polack on Hitler’s birthday.
I’m being very serious when I mention the “black dog syndrome”. Black dogs & cats are always the last to be adopted from shelters/rescues, if at all. this is b/c they are hard to see sitting at the back of a cage in often poorly lit shelters. They are the most euthanized in shelters. Black dogs and cats are not used in advertising b/c their features do not show up in photos. Pay attention to this when you see petsmart ads from now on. No black animals. It sounds kinda silly that I mention it, but ‘Imyar’ alluded to it, saying he might have seen one ad with “a very light skinned black woman”. Food for thought?
african americans make up only 14% of the U.S. population…why so surprised that they dont show up in every fucking ad EVAR? have you seen that bizzaro world walmart ad they show during the tavis smiley show? not a white in sight.
Nah. It’s not that it’s too long. Cuz it isn’t. It’s just the way it is.
is muslim the new black? i thought gay was the new black? who cares, i’m fucking all of them.
@frenchy
you really must be french because you miss the point entirely…black people ARE in every ad, you dolt…that’s the whole point upon which the post is written, ya damn foreigner.
white people be sick cause they dont want no flu shot.
mean while the latinos and blacks took those free flu shots with no shame in there game
respect
mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while mean while
“mean while [sic] the latinos and blacks took those free flu shots with no shame in there [sic] game…”
Maybe that explains the intractable IQ differences. Dumb fucks. Keep taking those free flu shots.
I’m the only white guy in this campaign. Sorry.
The blacks don’t strike me as big consumers of cough drops.
Merry Christmas Bennigger!
@ no.thanks.
That’s two of your posts I’ve just read on this site, and both of them have been the definition of lame, wanky nonsense. Fuck off.
Very satisfying article.
@fighting women is easy and fun: youre an idiot. i don’t even get what you wrote.
@Cunty Baws, I don’t get it – you like the post but hate no.thanks? You’re incoherent.
@where’s my phone? – youre gay black and muslim? why do you lie?
Good post benjamin I wish you had youre own site. Is there a way I can have these emailed to me with .rss? I can’t stand having to wade through the other shit on here
That’s because black people don’t get sick. They’re special like that…that and not being serial killers. They leave being sick physically and mentally to you PBR drinkin, diarrhea medicine ad having, emergenC bumping, motherfuc*ers.
Great Glengarry Glen Ross reference! Nice one!
“That’s because black people don’t get sick. They’re special like that…that and not being serial killers.”
BZZZZT—WRONG! This is NOT an area where African-Americans need Affirmative Action.
According to the book “African Americans and Serial Killing in the Media: The Myth and the Reality,” from one study of 413 serial killers from the mid-1940s to 2004, 90 of them were black…nearly 22% of the total and a 169% statistical over-representation (since they’re about 13 percent of the population).
Not sure how this myth of “no black serial killers” got started, but a lot of people swallowed it. Don’t worry—there are plenty of black serial killers. The cops just popped one in Cleveland who allegedly snuffed 11.