Chapter 6

Discussion 6: Television Advertising

Discussion 6

Jasmina Silva

EDF 2085 / WEB

Author Note

Jasmina I. Silva, Intro To Diversity, Miami Dade College, Department of School

of Education. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to

Email: [email protected]

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Abstract

For this particular discussion, I chose to survey television advertising for evidence

of stereotyping. I came across 2 commercials on "ION" television that caught my

attention and took down a few notes. Both commercials were advertising cleaning

products, and what I came across is the simple fact that although we've come a long way

from sexism, racism, and prejudice behavior, they are still out there and affirmative

action is needed.

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Stereotyping Evidence Found on ION Television

Through out history we have learned and seen that stereotypes have severely

affected the image of the individual who is portrayed in a certain way. Fortunately, we

have come a long way when it comes to women being always seen as the "house maid" or

the African American who was always playing in movies as the "slave" or the

"comedian" who was seen as a joke. We are living in a time where it is okay for men to

be the image of cleaning products, such as Billy Mays, who spent

most of his adulthood life creating wonderful advertisement commercials for several

cleaning products or "Mr. Clean" who is a male

representative of a very well known cleaning product. In addition, we can now watch an

action packed movie where the hero of the film is Denzel Washington or Will Smith. It is

clear that times have changed, but not entirely.

Grabbing my remote control and making my way to my soft, comfy, ebony

colored sofa I turned on the television to one of my favorite networks, ION TV. As I was

watching "Ghost Whisperer" I was interested to see what stereotypical commercials I

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would come across to. Although Billy Mays, and Mr. Clean altered the stereotype of the

female being seen as the one who must keep the house tidy; unfortunately, in 2 cleaning

product commercials back to back it was a female advertising "Shark Steam Mop" and

"Bounty" cleaning products. Clearly, this stereotype hasn't really vanished, because as I

browsed through other channels and came across some other cleaning commercials, it

was always a woman doing the cleaning advertisement. As teachers, we must make sure

that we create activities that enable the students to "step into the shoes" of another

(McGraw-Hill p16).

As future educators, it is crucial to build our curriculum based on the

comprehensive programs that improve inter-group relations, such as cooperative learning,

where we help our students work together in pursuit of the common goal (McGraw-Hill

p17). Moving along, I went ahead and browed the web in search of what other

stereotypes I may find. By just typing in "Goth" on google images, I came across several

pictures portraying these group of people as smokers and drug addicts. In my own

experience, I have had several close friends that simply liked dressing with heavy dark

clothes with tattoos, and these were students with straight A's and involved in extra

curricular activities such as "Home-ech", which was a culinary club they offered in my

middle school.

Today, one of those individuals is currently attending "Le Cordon Bleu" which is

a culinary arts college in Miami and yes, he still dresses in heavy dark clothes. People

must have the opportunity to get to know the "other" person in ways that render the

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stereotype image clearly inaccurate or inappropriate.

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References

McGraw-Hill/ Irwin. Creating Classrooms That Address Race and Ethnicity. McGraw-

Hill Higher Education 2012. PowerPoint.

ION TV. Commercial Break. ION Media Networks.2007

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