Where's My Jetpack?: And Wake Up to a Brand New Day

Monday, April 16, 2007

And Wake Up to a Brand New Day

With the Imus controversy fresh in our minds, I thought now would be a good time to call attention to a trend that has taken a long time to come around; that of including interracial couples (I meant Black & White - see comments) in advertising and marketing. I've seen it in print for fashion, cigarettes and jewelry, maybe once or twice on TV, but this is the first time I've seen it on a website's homepage. Nice job on the part of Fossil to be a pioneer here, although it's a little odd that in 2007 this is considered pioneering.

Title of post stolen from "Original Sin," by INXS.

Labels: Fossil, mulitculturalism, race relations, trends

12 Comments:

Maybe they’re just friends.

By Anonymous, at April 16, 2007 at 3:36 PM
Yeah, Bill. If he's gay they might be friends.

By RFB, at April 16, 2007 at 3:40 PM
Not sure there’s a trend for interracial couples. Although advertisers are very comfortable matching Asians and Latinos with White partners. Or even Latinos with Black partners. And it’s oh-so-exotic to partner Asians with Blacks. But White and Black pairings remain mighty rare — unless the Black partner is light-skinned or mixed. Having spent time in multicultural shops, it can be said with confidence that most clients would freak out if presented with interracial casting (with the exception of partnering an Asian or Latino with a White person). Despite the recent Census figures showing a dramatic rise in interracial relationships, Madison Avenue prefers to avoid any race-based controversies, as Don Imus demonstrated.

By HighJive, at April 16, 2007 at 7:11 PM
i see this ALL THE TIME with white guys and asian chicks. ALL THE TIME!!!

By Maulleigh, at April 16, 2007 at 7:12 PM
I should've been more explicit, Maulleigh. I meant Black and White pairings. Like HighJive said, Latinos & Blacks or Whites & Asians are not so rare.

By RFB, at April 16, 2007 at 8:58 PM
It should be noted that all interracial pairings come with controversies. Two other blogs — racialicious.com and angryasianman.com — often point out interracial pairings involving Asians and other groups in ads, tv shows, movies, etc. There are plenty of political and cultural issues involving Black and White pairings. It was interesting to discover very similar issues may occur with Asian pairings — regardless of the race/ethnicity of the partner. Here’s our personal, biased opinion: White adpeople (responsible for casting) are much more comfortable pairing Whites with Asians and light-skinned Latinos because these races/ethnicities are physically close to being White. Like it or not, pairing Whites with Asians and Latinos is “safer” than pairing them with Blacks.

By HighJive, at April 17, 2007 at 12:20 AM
That's basically what I was getting at, HJ. Here's a short passage from a book I've been writing. This section deals with a Black man's White friends attempting to get him a date:

”And they were always trying to pair him up with someone, and she’d always be a sister or a Mexican or a Japanese chick or Venezuelan girl or anyone else of non-white background."

By RFB, at April 17, 2007 at 11:30 AM
My boy is taking the homecoming queen to the prom in a few days. I don't know much about her, but I know that she's going to a good law school next year, is bright as can be and is a cheerleader. She's also black. To my knowldge he's not gotten any crap from anyone, which amazes me.

Other stories he's told me about the school indicate that the students self-segregate by race generally in activities and the lunchroom, and wherever else they can. So it's kind of cool to me that so far they haven't had to buy into that noise, for whatever reason.

However, I note that he's not brought her to our house, probably because he's afraid I'll start giving my opinion about gangsta rap.

By Anonymous, at April 18, 2007 at 8:08 AM
captain flummox,

is the presumption that she would inherently have an opinion on gangsta rap?

By HighJive, at April 18, 2007 at 3:19 PM
Uh-oh. Setting a bear trap. Prepare for forty more comments.

Aside: Fossil dude is VERY ambiguously tan. Which I think is good - keep this issue from being "black" and "white". Crush the blacks (this is an old art direction term for punching the contrast, not opressing a race), Blow out the whites (again, art direction, not political platform)and let's all just enjoy the various shades of gray.

That's what I love about color: focusing on the wonderful range that bridges the extremes.

Can I get an Amen? (and I mean an Amen).

By James-H, at April 18, 2007 at 11:58 PM
Amen, James.

Now how about some Playdoh sculptures on t-shirts?

By RFB, at April 19, 2007 at 12:24 AM
He’s blind. She helps him go places, do things. He doesn’t know what she looks like. Oh sure he does that creepy face read thing, but he doesn’t really know.

By Anonymous, at April 19, 2007 at 10:07 PM