Katie’s Dad 2.0

There was a time in my life that I considered going into the advertising field. While in my college of journalism, I took a couple of really interesting classes in its advertising department. The attraction for me, although I’m sure I would not have described it this way at the time, was the idea of using words and images and sounds to influence human behavior in such a way that audiences weren’t even aware that they were being manipulated.

I remember being awestruck upon realizing how I had been used… how we all are used… by the clever intent of those who create print, radio and television advertising. Even though it’s been 25 years, I remember one assignment very clearly. We had to find and bring to class examples of hidden sexual imagery that was intentionally manipulated into what on its face appeared to be benign advertising design. My best find for the assignment was the tiny image of a couple fornicating in a mirror that was reflected in an ice cube in a glass being filled with rum. It was only clear under magnification that this micro-porn image had been intentionally inserted and it wasn’t just a trick of light. The message: Drink this rum and you’ll get laid.

Ever since, I’ve paid a lot of attention to the subtle advertising that goes on within the overt advertising that Madison Avenue serves up for us. Every once in awhile I find an ad that just leaves me scratching my head trying to figure out whether the greater purpose of the subtle message within it is intended to insinuate itself into common societal consciousness, and therefore eventually become more important and long-lasting than the overt pitch.

For example, this is an ad that I’ve been kicking around in my head the past couple of weeks:

On its face, there’s not a lot going on here. Simple: On one hand we have a slightly multicultural American classroom juxtaposed against a very monocultural Chinese classroom. I’m sure the first couple of times I saw it I didn’t notice it. After all, it’s just kids being kids. Fun and games, you know? But is it really? Is that all that’s going on here?

I’m coming down on the side of “I don’t think so.”

The more I think about this staring contest, I see it as a duel. It’s a big and common scene that most adults over 40 should recognize in an instant, but younger folks might not know as intuitively. The reason we don’t recognize it immediately is that usual outcome is turned on its head - the guy in the “black hat” wins. The set up comes directly from the cowboy western movie genre, where the “good guy” always gets the girl and rides off into the sunset victorious. That’s the American way, after all. Through images and sounds and conveyed emotions, it was the way that American institutions and patriotic businessmen and Hollywood icons used to keep alive and promote the notion of “American exceptionalism.” This advertisement tells me that somebody on Madison Avenue thinks these traditional ideas and beliefs about America are all behind us now. Or maybe they’re suggesting they should be put behind us.

As I see it, the advertising agency that came up with this nonsense went out of its way to pit an unusually light-skin-toned, at least by current Madison Avenue standards, American classroom against an ethnically homogenous Asian classroom. Now, my super-secret Handbook on Political Correctness tells me that in any situation in which imperialist Americans are placed in a contest against any other nationalistic or ethnic group, the American contingent must lose… unless there is some American minority back-story to be championed.

Think about this: Would this advertisement ever have made it to air in the past? Ten years ago? Maybe, but I have my doubts. Twenty years ago? Absolutely not. It would have been seen by too many as an affront to this nation’s self-esteem. Thirty years ago, the airing of this ad would have meant the end of Cisco as an ongoing business enterprise.

Cisco’s advertisement is supposedly about bringing the world together. As I see it, it’s actually somebody’s conscious projection of what they expect - or hope - for this nation’s future. Now, you, my dear reader might think I take my concerns about this to the extreme, but I bet you’ll be checking the ice cubes in magazine ads for the presence of a humping little ant-sized people more than a little bit in the future.

Culture, Diversity, Globalism, Multiculturalism, Political Correctness