Advertising Age posted a culturally clueless, clichéd and contrived British Red Cross commercial featuring rapping babies, created by FullSIX Group. Based on the firm’s equally lame Who We Are video, the place is not full of diversity—but they do appear to be full of shit.
Notice it’s the same white director, Chris Sweeney, who has filmed Lana del Rey music videos (infamous for her cultural appropriation http://jezebel.com/dear-lana-del-rey-you-are-not-a-latina-gangsta-girl-s-1479863180) and Lily Allen music videos (also known for using black women as props http://noisey.vice.com/blog/lily-allen-hard-out-here-ayesha-a-siddiqi).
ReplyDeleteSo what you have is time # 1,000 that a white director is allowed to dabble in ethnic culture for funsies, while ethnic directors are locked out of all commercial jobs period.
They can't shoot work with ethnic elements, because white directors have beaten them to it and are regarded as better experts.
They can't shoot any work at all, because ad agencies only hire their white director friends.
So they can't ever see work like this (because they're not allowed within a million metres of it) to make it better.
Catch-22.