Anneliese W. sent us this Australian ad campaign for Noble Rise bread. The claim is that other breads are “bland” and that Noble Rise bread is not. To make the claim, the advertisements use Black people to signify spice and flavor. Anneliese writes:
…what really struck me about this campaign is the use of coloured bodies to represent excitement, flavour and coolness. The slogan for the campaign is something like “take a stand against bland” – bland being ‘normal’ and everyday, and in some ads the obvious unspoken is that blandness is white. Framing blackness as the opposite of ‘bland’ is just another example of the ‘other-ing’ of black bodies, and re-enforcing the idea that white western culture is ‘bland’ or non-existent.
[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aXfxKJnR54Q[/youtube]
[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xpO3eF7wrC8[/youtube]
[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=cwIOM3BzjOM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=h3SSPQgm2jA[/youtube]
I offer several more examples of this phenonemon here.
Comments 4
Sociological Images » why and how people of color are included in advertising: 2nd in a series — November 9, 2008
[...] associate with the black woman, whereas white women are bland, vanilla, and whitebread. And click here to see an Australian bread company using Blackness to argue that their bread is not [...]
Shane H — November 9, 2008
Point taken. They are really directed at young people and draw on particular forms of ethnic blackness but not any form of Indigenous Australian blackness so from a 'down under' perspective there's also the use of UK/US pop cultural blackness to see bread of all things.
Umlud — November 9, 2008
... 30 billion? So, bling for bland, but nothing for intelligence?
Anonymous — November 9, 2008
"… 30 billion? So, bling for bland, but nothing for intelligence?"
It's a hyperbole.
Were there no commercials for the British rocker and the European DJ?
2 white people, 2 black people, all represent something that isn't bland.