From The Metro
Since it was first aired, the advert has received controversial feedback online, with some slamming the commercial for ‘not representing them’.
Others went as far as to say they were boycotting Sainsbury’s because of their ad. One shopper tweeted: ‘Isn’t the UK supposed to be all about Diversity and Inclusion? Don’t see any of that here. Virtual signalling if ever I’ve seen it!’
I have some sympathy for Sainsbury's here. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Clearly, the UK is a 'white' country and 95% of the population consider themselves 'White British'. So if supermarkets always just featured a median family in their adverts, they would all be all white. Which, while fairly accurate, would be a bit boring. And they'd get grief from the virtue signallers (who are all white, rather ironically).
If all supermarkets just used the median family, then we would only see white families, which might be a fair reflection of many parts of the country, but completely out of kilter with larger cities. So a lot of them cop out by having a mixed race family with one white and one non-white* parent.
But, even though I am half of a mixed race couple with mixed race kids, I find this really irritating. It's the least representative kind of family, that's basic maths. Even if every single non-white person married a white person, that's still only one-in-ten families. Clearly they don't, so in truth is more like one-in-a-hundred.
So Sainsbury's marketing team thought "Fuck it, this is all too complicated. We'll never improve on plugboy. Whatever else we do will offend somebody, so for a change let's have an all-black family."
And good for them, to be honest. If a supermarket did an Xmas advert featuring a family of green CGI Martians, would anybody bat an eyelid?
* You're not allowed to say 'coloured' any more (as Greg Clarke found out to his cost, seriously, you can lose your job for this). Hilariously enough we did a 'racial sensitivity' nonsense course at work a couple of years ago and the lecturer insisted that we say 'people of colour', or 'BIPOC', completely made-up phrases which were deemed to be offensive a few weeks ago. 'Black' is the preferred term again for Afro-Caribbeans (they've always described to themselves as 'black' AFAIAA). You have to keep up to date with these things!
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18 comments:
I'm not one for being pedantic(!) but isn't about time these SJW idiots realised that there are no black people, only brown; and no white people, only pink?
DCB, agreed. But there are endless shades of brown, so we narrow it down a bit.
IMHO there's just 'folks'. I reckon we are dealing with a grievance industry here. Someone needs to make them go away. Now.
"Virtual signalling if ever I’ve seen it!"
Of course it's virtual signalling, don't you know there's a lockdown on?
"'Black' is the preferred term again for Afro-Caribbeans (they've always described to themselves as 'black' AFAIAA)."
Something that has always puzzled me, given all the many negative non-racial connotations of the word "black".
DCB, people love polarity and can't be bothered with nuances.
I thought that the spotlight on Sainsbury and its racial policies was turned on by their social media team announcing "Safe spaces" for one race only in support of BLM? The follow up and could be a coincidence?
L, there's just folks. And there are also SJW snowflakes and racist snowflakes.
B, 'BLM' is an abbreviation of what?
OTOH, I don't remember them getting involved in this 'safe space' nonsense, so I can't comment.
LYL, they did indeed, I was reminded of that. But didn't last year's Tesco ad switch back and forth between different families? I'm sure it wasn't JUST the Pakistani family.
Good points.
Q: why do we call mixed race people black though? I'm mixed race, quarter Welsh unfortunately but am considered a second class white man
Also, when a minority group signals their 'plight', isn't this self admittance they have little confidence in their pseudo group and it's chances of success? Though obviously incorrect in fact, surely the more confident citizen would see being in a minority as a rewarding life challenge to approach head on with joy? Now, they have a genuine objective in life which delivers huge rewards in more ways than wealth
RS. Me: A bit Irish. A bit Welsh. Some French (a couple of generations back). A bit East End hence possibly a bit Jewish. Typical Brit really.
Thing is. The UK used to have a civic view of nationality, not a racial one. I went to school in North London. My class had Jews. Greek (Cypriot probably). British Asian (both Indian and Pakistani). Irish. Black British (Afro-Carribean and African). Sri Lankan. Chinese. And so on. No-one gave a stuff. And they were all 'Brits'. That was in the early to mid 1960's mind.
RS, don't dip your to in the "mixed race" debate. A few years ago the Approved Phrase was "multi-ethnic" I think. I'm not sure what you're allowed to say this year.
Nobody's signalling anything here. Some actors, who happen to be black, got calls from their agents and jumped at the chance to earn a few quid, same as any other actors.
Whatever happened to quadroon and octoroon? Just askin'
DrE, those phrases turned into a minefield and we don't go there any more.
"'BLM' is an abbreviation of what?"
Black Lives Matter? (also British Lead Mills, but I'm sure you didn't mean that), why do you ask?
There should be a black family about in in 20 years.
I think we've reached the post-civil rights era. I'm not saying all racism has gone, but that broadly speaking, it has. The odd racist is a bit of a weirdo. And I know we didn't have a civil rights thing, but views on race are quite an echo of the USA.
When you get to that point, when you see a film like Tenet or Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse where the lead is black, but it isn't a film about colour or racial oppression, you're very close to done. General society accepts the hero is black or white.
And I think we'll see just random representation at some point in the near future. When the war on racism is over, people won't be anxious about making sure they show some token black people. Photos of reports from companies in Devon will just be all white, like the place is.
At the beginning of October Sainsbury announced, 'Recently we provided our black colleagues with a safe space to gather in response to The Black Lives Matters [sic] movement’.
Following divided public opinion as to whether there should be racially segregated facilities at work, Sainsbury's doubled down and tweeted, '...We proudly represent and serve our diverse society and anyone who does not want to shop with an inclusive retailer is welcome to shop elsewhere.'
Although the recent advert could be a coincidence, it may be that Sainsbury is still keen to establish its diverse credentials.
B, exactly, so I don't think that the SJWs can hound you for using 'black'.
TS, yes, it's all a storm in a tea cup, USA is really racist, the UK is, on the whole, hardly racist at all. No comparison.
OTOH, thanks for background info. That is indeed virtue signalling crap, as you originally suggested.
Mark, but my surprise is that "black" people have chosen to call themselves black, given its negative connotations, like black heart, black deeds, blackmail, black market, black mark etc etc.
B, agreed. That surprises me too.
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