I may get myself in trouble with this post; it touches on some hot button issues of race, diversity, affluence, etc., but it strikes me as an interesting consideration for the future of marketing.
In most people’s eyes, my wife and I would probably be described as "typical liberals." White, white collar, vote Democratic, spiritual but not religious, big believers in civil rights, equal opportunity, etc. We are bi-coastal, and in both of these home metros, we’re rubbing elbows with a decent mix of racial types: white, asian, indian, black, latino. It’s fairly homogenous from the standpoint of "affluence" but refreshingly heterogeneous in terms of "race." That’s just some background for my recent "learnings."
You know that age-old trick that parents play, when their kids are budding teenagers — the one where you’re playing chauffeur for your kids and their friends, and you clam up (rather than make a fool of yourself) to hear what’s on their minds? I make it a point to keep my lips zipped when I am shuttling my 14-year old son and his friends to-and-fro; they soon forget I exist.
Here’s what I noticed: these well-off kids, all of whom appear to be raised by conscientious, highly educated, liberal-minded parents, are not blind to race (as they were raised); rather, they make a BIG deal of it; they completely wrap their arms around racial stereotypes to the point where they are rendered ridiculously ineffective. Not only that, they drill down beyond the "macro" identities (say, "latino") and get specific (not "latino" but "Chilean").
At first I was horrified. One of my son’s friends is Egyptian (see? not "arabic" but, specifically, "egyptian"), and as I asked for directions to his house, one of the other boys spouted, "Turn left at the fork and be on the look-out for a pyramid!" — which elicited gales of laughter, including from the Egyptian boy. A Chilean boy is good-naturedly chided about his "in-born" abilities at soccer: "Duh, of course you’re good at soccer — you’re Chilean!" A Chinese kid is good at algebra "because all Chinese kids are good at math." White kids are ragged on for everything from dance-floor clumsiness to chasing off the American Indians…
Obviously these are relatively harmless examples. I wonder how a Jewish kid might react if his friends ribbed him for being a natural penny-pincher, for example. I wonder how a Chinese student who sucked at mathematics might feel about being pegged as an outrageous anomaly. I wonder whether a black kid in this crowd might laugh as easily about lame "fried chicken" jokes as they might about the outlandish claim that "all Egyptians live in pyramids."
It seems like a crazy precedent. Certainly there are dangers; certainly any one of these boys in my son’s group might secretly hate such foolishness. But from what I’ve seen so far of these kids (and they’re all good kids), this is equal-opportunity racism; it is not based on ignorance, rather it is very self-aware. Does "racism for all" take the teeth out of racism? For these kids, the answer seems to be "yes." Looking in my rearview mirror at my son’s good friends is like looking at a rainbow of nationalities.
The only thing that is distinctly "white" about these kids are their iPod earbuds. Which got me thinking…
Will the corporate brands that, today, cater in a high-brow way to the realistic differences of culture, race and language ever consider taking a page from the book of this "M" Generation, and cook up campaigns that simultaneously acknowledge, embrace, and ultimately mock racial stereotypes?
On the one hand you might find that idea to be in horribly bad taste. I do, too — at least for today’s world. But take a step back: if the world could accept such a ridiculous campaign, wouldn’t that mean that we’d truly gotten past such stereotypes, to the point that we could just laugh at them and move on?
From my own unscientific sample, Generation M appears to be ready.
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Todd, I’m afraid you’re about to run into the Bizarro-World of “Flyover Country Double-Standard.”
I agree with you, that we are witnessing the onset of a generation that is embracing differences, for good and for ill. However, advertisers that try to woo the “M” with hip references and social satire will only get play on the coasts.
Ironically, it’s NOT because the midwest and the deep south isn’t ready for such conversations — it’s the perceptions carried by the writers and editors living in the bubble that is DC and NYC. A campaign that you describe run locally in San Francisco or Boston would be hailed as genius. The same campaign run in San Antonio or Birmingham would be universally panned by the Times, the Post, and NPR as The Last Gasp of the Good Ole Boys.”
You want to know why the GEICO Cavemen are so damned successful?
1) By mocking cultural insensitivity through the use of a non-existent group, no one gets offended.
2) Those of us in “The Land of Big Metal Birds in Sky” actually identify with the Cavemen. Remember the look on the face of the Airport Caveman on the moving sidewalk? We get that same feeling when we travel to the coasts. Just flash an Alabama or Mississippi driver’s license at a hotel clerk, and the stares soon follow. Some of them talk slower to me, as though I can’t process words as quickly.
“And everywhere I go, there’s always something to remind me…”
Great points, Ike. I admit that as I was writing this post, the first draft did not say “typical liberal” but “coastal liberal.”
Todd,
I think your post is very interesting. The idea of equal opportunity racism is an intersting one, and I think one that is almost embraced to a degree by younger generations who are not as easily offended. You can look at pop culture such as The Family Guy which doesn’t shy away from making a joke at just about anything. A few years ago Fox refused to show an episode called “Wish Upon A Weinstein” which played up on Jewish stereotypes. I eventually saw the episode on Adult Swim, and as a Jew, I couldn’t stop laughing at the idiocy of the characters.
In regards to marketers looking to embrace some of this, it is a fine line, and I think depends if they are trying to cater to just a specific audience or a broad audience. One person already spoke about the GEICO Caveman adds - which I also think are very witty and funny. AdAge this week posted a story and links to video from NBC’s Mun2 Hispanic Cable Chanel with their new campaign “Are You Too Gringo”.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=115085
I actually cringed a little when I watched it. I wonder how the hispanic community thinks about it. Is it OK, because the piece comes from the channel that is catering to that audience and was the brainchild of a Hispanic marketing firm?
Will marketers try to reach out to specific audiences with similar campaigns, or will we see more efforts like the GEICO Caveman?
All very interesting stuff. It’s rare to see marketers going out on such a limb as to toy with the proverbial third rail of race.
As parents, we are falling into a dangerous trap. We “think” we’ve raised our kids to be color-blind, but that’s simply not true. No matter what kind of job we’ve done with our kids, America is still an incredibly racist society.
The problem with good-natured stereotyping is that people never know when to quit. It doesn’t take long before someone crosses the line and says something stupid.
I’m a redneck, married to a black woman with two mixed kids, so I’ve seen both “sides” of the conversation. I’ve heard what people say in private when they think they’re joking. I cringe whenever I hear kids talking like this because at some point they will say something out-of-line.
When my son, who’s six, talks like this with his friends (and I know he will), I’ll take him aside and let him know why it’s not okay. I’ll tell him that people don’t know when the kidding ends and the hurtfulness begins. He won’t be able to stop it, but he can silently choose not to encourage it.
Maybe America will be ready for this type of marketing in a hundred years or so, after Generation X has died out. My secret hope is that marketers of the future will focus more on what Americans have in common.
I agree, Shannon. This post was more a “thought exercise” than meant to imply a hope to see marketers jump into self-aware, self-mocking ethnic-focused campaigns.
For the record, I’ve talked to my own son at length about all this. It’s been a useful and interesting exercise. The hardest part was explaining that he wasn’t “in trouble” but that I wanted to have a meaningful dialogue with him about it all.
The good news is that he is a good kid, who (so far) seems to know where “the line” is. To cross that line, in his eyes, seems to be a truly abhorrent thought.
Todd, I know where you are coming from on this post. But, ,mankind has not been able to overcome racism for thousands of years. Let’s face it. They never will. If we were all the same language, color, size, etc., there would still be issues. You would be from the West and I live in the South. We could draw lines over that. Although kids do make stereotypical jokes, there is a necessity in that. In a way it is an ice breaker to the racial awkwardness that still exists. Shannon is right about it going too far also. Kids and adults lose self control when center stage of a joke. Let’s face it, the “Human Race” is truly that. We are racing to a finish line of commonality and acceptance. Unfortunately we do not know which path to take to successfully finish. Tolerance-Intolerance.
We all share this globe. The only differentiation I see is that you are my “Brother from another mother.”
Kevin
Todd:
I’ve experienced much the same thing in my very diverse community. Kids today say things my generation would have never dreamed of saying to one another, and they all seem to laugh about it.
The problem, of course, is that when a kid takes this kind of banter to heart, it can be very hurtful.
Most willl not. Some will. It’s difficult to tell who fits into each category.
The other thing I see that you did not describe is that while there is friendship and communication between the races, most kids in my community do tend to self-segregate.
It’s amazing to go to the mall and see these groups of kids all broken down by ethnicity and background. Not that they don’t interact at all, because they do, but their first choice is still “people who look like themselves.”
How much of that is driven by their parents’ desire for them to associate with peers from similar backgrounds, and how much is just natural levels of comfort, I don’t know.
Todd,
Although my son is still young and I hope that I can teach him to accepting of all people, it is indeed a fine line. In a way I think this would be a good way to see if we are as open to everyone as we say. But on the other hand, most people are still easily offended by the jokes about their particular race. I do not like it when people get their feelings hurt over a marketing tactic. So, I’m still not sure if we are ready for this type of PR. In a way it would give a green light to the cruel people of the world and give them ammunition to be hurtful. So I would have to voice my opposition for this one.