Mixed race couples on tv ads **Mod Warning in Post #556**

DellyBelly

Currently watching the Munster v Ulster match and at half time I noticed that a number of adds had mixed race couples in them. There was a BOI one followed by a Vodafone one where it was a white Irish guy with a black girl and kids. The only reason I thought it was unusual was that I don't know many mixed race couples... but maybe it's not so unusual these days?

SamStonesArm

Plenty of mixed race couples about.

dotsman

You don't know any mixed race couples???

You must live a very sheltered life. You should get out more.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 4 married couples (that I know well - i.e. 3 of whose weddings I would have attended) as well as numerous examples of shorter term relationships or people who I would only deem acquaintances.

Radharc na Sleibhte

No, not unusual

enricoh

It's more or less mandatory for advertisers nowadays!

KaneToad

There is definitely an over representation of mixed race families in TV/print ads. But we had the opposite for many years previously. Its no harm if it's swinging this way now.

standardg60

It's a very carefully orchestrated PR exercise OP, every company worth their salt wants to be seen to be racially positive, despite the actual proportion of mixed race relationships in society.

I always chuckled at the Tesco Christmas ads, as there was 'a random black guy' seated at a table full of whites for no reason. This year's was an improvement with mixed raced kids, though i was still struggling to figure out what the relationships of the adults were.

Markus Antonius

I was thinking the exact same thing today!

The Charicahuahua Tribe from the south-east could do with more representation tho.

DellyBelly

Before anyone thinks this upsets me it certainly doesn't. I just thought it was a little unusual...

Masala

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441269#Comment_118441269

I have to agree with you..... I Would did say I am a very social person and can’t say I know of any mixed married couples and I am in my 50,s having travelled the country in numerous jobs

.... and the kids definitely seemed to to be more colored than white. Sometimes I think yer man in the Vodafone ad must have married a widowed lady with two kids.

Are these ads trying to say that I got this marriage thing wrong marrying Mary the girl next door ....

dxhound2005

The thing that doesn't come across is that most of the whites are Poles or Lithuanians. It is the black people who are Irish.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441269#Comment_118441269

I'm surprised the usual suspects weren't on here saying your a middle aged angry man because you made a comment about something.

To answer your question I probably know about two off the top off my head.

Only one I thought was weird was the was the three ad for Christmas with the black kids but no black adult in sight.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441972#Comment_118441972

Jesus Mary, and black Joseph

mary 2021

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441983#Comment_118441983

amen !

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441378#Comment_118441378

'On a par with the KKK' for wanting representation of the people who exist in a society.

I imagine you spitting at the screen as you desperately look for the remote to switch back to Fox screaming about who changed the channel in the first place.

CGI_Livia_Soprano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442013#Comment_118442013

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441378#Comment_118441378

Jesus Christ you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Strazdas

I'm in favour of such ads. Black people (and other ethnic minorities) were seriously underrepresented in the Irish media and advertising until very recently. About time this was redressed, it's the right thing to do.

nj27

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442031#Comment_118442031

You can imagine me spitting at the screen and switching to some American TV station if that gets you off, but I insist you imagine me in a purple gimp suit too. That the least you can do.

jam_mac_jam

I just feel sorry for the poor Asians, it's like they don't exist.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442114#Comment_118442114

It's white. With a hood.

SouthWesterly

No such thing as mixed race.

Are white people not human?

I've a feeling we've been here before with that question 😁

jam_mac_jam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442208#Comment_118442208

I do think it's a bit **** though. We have had a higher population of Asians in particular Chinese for longer and they are seriously under represented in ads and television.

I think the black thing is an overcorrection and while it is a bit silly it's better then no representation.

dxhound2005

They have Mixed Race in the UK.

Mixed is an ethnicity category that has been used by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics since the 1991 Census. Colloquially it refers to British citizens or residents whose parents are of two or more different races or ethnic backgrounds. Mixed race people are the fastest growing ethnic group in the UK and numbered 1.25 million in the 2011 census.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442208#Comment_118442208

That's a fair point actually, representing a different race shouldn't automatically mean you have to be black.

Ninthlife

The Bord Gais ad at Xmas was the same. The guy, Irish, face times his family who are all gathered together for Xmas dinner while he is at work on call. Suddenly a random black kid pops onto the screen..first thing I thought was tokenism and just plain PR overly PC shyte.

Cienciano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441972#Comment_118441972

Sure, Vodafone and BOI for some reason want more mixed race couples in ireland. Makes perfect sense. They definitely don't want to appeal to as many demographics as possible to sell more phones or to get as many different people to open bank accounts. No, they want to "condition" the irish public to somehow fúck up the next generation.

Seriously, the internet has a lot to answer for. The idiot american right wing conspiracy theories that we all laughed at 10 years ago are growing here. In 10 years there'll be far right people blaming jews for the fact that they have shít job in the convention centre on the quays

standardg60

Or in other words is utilising solely black people to represent diversity not racist itself?

Filmer Paradise

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442208#Comment_118442208

Intresting point.

It's really noticeable nowadays, all these black people in Irish ads.

Not so many Asians, Chinese, Polish, Latvians etc.

Are the blacks the darlings of the progressives nowadays.

OMG!. The Travellers will feel neglected.

(There's only so many bell whiffing bleeding heart types to have pity on the 'oppressed ones'.)

Thelonious Monk

I've noticed this myself, but I don't really care. I have mixed race cousins and nephew. It may be over exaggerated in ads etc but I am happy it's annoying the boards/journal commenters, at least there's that.

72sheep

DellyBelly, you’re brave but not wrong. Observing that TV ads are not portraying recognisable day-to-day life in Ireland does not make you a bad person :-) Irish demographics are conclusive (94% white, 2% asian and 1.5% black) and so while anecdotal stories from posters are interesting, statistically they are entirely relevant. These simple numbers are why everyone is liking enricoh post. 

Pure speculation of course, but the multinationals paying for lots of these ads are the prime beneficiaries of the flow of cheap labour* and so may want to normalise an exaggeratedly blended demographic. (* Often because western powers have been invading their poor countries with democracy.)