Will The Affirmative Action Decision Change Woke TV Commercials?

 Will The SCOTUS Affirmative Action Decision Impact TV Commercials? 

By James Terminiello 

Those of you who have watched television or videos on your favorite device must have noticed that black actors, interracial couples, and gay performers are overrepresented wildly in commercials when compared to the general population.  (See Notes 1, 2, & 3)  

The numbers speak for themselves, and there can be no debate that the percentages do not reflect reality. Not that commercials ever reflected reality to begin with. The only question is: Why? And the follow-up to that inquiry is: Will the SCOTUS decision relating to Affirmative Action have any impact? 

Let's first examine why. 

Advertisers want to be hip, woke, and cool.  Face it, advertisers just want to sell their latest drug, cereal, cosmetic, or tube of Miracle Goo, and will do anything to accomplish that simple goal. Their research tells them that sympathy for anyone defined as a member of the underclass will make them look better and the result will be more sales. To that end, all black women are portrayed as the smartest in the room. White women come in second and white men are all short, dumpy, balding, and dumb as soup. I invite anyone to dispute those previous statements based on the evidence that is available to you daily.  I would accept this analysis but for the fact that the practice of over-representation is so universal. It seems that everyone who produces commercials follows this practice with no exception. Such lock-step begs deeper inquiry.  

Society has changed and this is what people want to see.  There are those who feel that the middle of the road in the United States has shifted far to the left in recent years.  The decline of marriage. The liberalization of drug laws. Near antipathy toward organized religion. The fracturing of families coupled with widespread childhood depression. These factors and more point to a change in what we could define as middle-of-the-road America. Perhaps a majority of white Americans genuinely feel guilt over our racist past and accept disproportionate representation as part, and only part, of an overall and ongoing penance. This is certainly the opinion of some, but not of all.  

Pressure from the Federal Government. In policy and in action this is the most race-conscious (I dare say race-obsessed) administration this country has ever seen. It is not likely to be a coincidence that the universal conversion to ultra-woke casting by advertisers has occurred at this time. The question is whether this is the result of a mere suggestion by the federal government, a directive, or something more coercive.   

I believe that all three of these speculations are at play... and perhaps more. Whatever the cause(s), what we are experiencing today, right now, is clearly political to its roots and cannot be distinguished from bald-faced propaganda.  And when propaganda is exposed as propaganda it tends to lose its potency over time.  

Perhaps the advertisers should look to the SCOTUS decision for inspiration and a dollop of reason.  

Author James Terminiello, whose latest book “Junkyard” will be published in the Fall, writes from Mount Laurel, New Jersey 

1 https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/fact-sheet/facts-about-the-us-black-population/ 

2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States#:~:text=A%20record%2015.1%25%20of%20all,regardless%20of%20when%20they%20occurred. 

3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States#:~:text=A%20record%2015.1%25%20of%20all,regardless%20of%20when%20they%20occurred.