9 Jul 2020 7:46 pm
Brand mascots are just anthropomorphized ideas/values. White culture has had plenty of good models of virtue, for example the Quaker guy on the oatmeal. Quakers were virtuous, chaste, industrious and honed their cabinets with stunning craftsmanship. They were very white.
Another example: the Pirate dude on the Captain Morgan’s Rum bottle. He is a swashbuckling, dashing, jaunty rakish daredevil. He symbolizes certain traits and qualities, like freedom and rebellion with the one leg up pose
So, ideally, an advertiser would create a visually appealing logo using a mascot, and the mascot has always been some archetype of a positive quality that the customer wants to be associated with, hence the consumer buys the product.
So why have blacks not been represented in advertising except in a very few, unflattering cases? Because blacks have never embodied the quality traits in the American psyche. The stereotype has been lazy, ignorant, shifty, we have ascribed these traits to black people to justify their enslavement and it takes generations, nay centuries to change such associations.
During the 1970s and 1980s, blacks started to finally become associated with two positive traits in the collective white imagination, fun and “cool”. This was due to their heavy presence/ influence in music and athletics. Black music was so good in the 1940s, Elvis Presley culturally appropriated it and got super rich. As did Eminem decades later.
Now in 2020, we finally have the first black advertising icon that is NOT based on some old tired cliche about slaves mammies and house ***. A pro athlete, symbolizing physical strength, speed and the champions will to win! Shaquille O Neil, the new face of Papa Johns pizza! Cuz he bought many franchise investments, they now have his likeness on the pizza boxes.
1 Nomination
Phelix_Dacat Jul 09, 2020
Go to original post on Jul 09, 2020 8:43pm
Another example: the Pirate dude on the Captain Morgan’s Rum bottle. He is a swashbuckling, dashing, jaunty rakish daredevil. He symbolizes certain traits and qualities, like freedom and rebellion with the one leg up pose
So, ideally, an advertiser would create a visually appealing logo using a mascot, and the mascot has always been some archetype of a positive quality that the customer wants to be associated with, hence the consumer buys the product.
So why have blacks not been represented in advertising except in a very few, unflattering cases? Because blacks have never embodied the quality traits in the American psyche. The stereotype has been lazy, ignorant, shifty, we have ascribed these traits to black people to justify their enslavement and it takes generations, nay centuries to change such associations.
During the 1970s and 1980s, blacks started to finally become associated with two positive traits in the collective white imagination, fun and “cool”. This was due to their heavy presence/ influence in music and athletics. Black music was so good in the 1940s, Elvis Presley culturally appropriated it and got super rich. As did Eminem decades later.
Now in 2020, we finally have the first black advertising icon that is NOT based on some old tired cliche about slaves mammies and house ***. A pro athlete, symbolizing physical strength, speed and the champions will to win! Shaquille O Neil, the new face of Papa Johns pizza! Cuz he bought many franchise investments, they now have his likeness on the pizza boxes.
1 Nomination
Phelix_Dacat Jul 09, 2020
Go to original post on Jul 09, 2020 8:43pm