Racial bias and Gatorade AM

Before you read any further, watch this current TV advertisement for Gatorade AM:

Gatorade AM ad on YouTube

Most idle viewers agree that this is a pretty funny ad, but usually for reasons they can't explain. Myself, as a conscious viewer, will explain to you my reasons why I do not find this advertisement funny at all; in fact, I find it an indictment of idle acceptance of racial bias in mainstream media culture.

First of all, we can name all the athletes in the ad. Kevin Garnett (basketball) as the deliveryman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (basketball) doing yardwork, Mia Hamm (soccer) picking up the soccer players, a pee-wee football team, and Peyton Manning (football), running to catch his team bus. At first glance, this appears to be a very well-balanced advertisement. Three men (of which two are black), one woman, and children. But a few questions arise:
- Of all the characters in this ad, why is the only service position played by a black man? He was dressed up in a cute little all-white uniform (complete with hat), as a reference to a 1930's-1950's-era milk deliveryman. What influences the conscious decision to cast the black athlete so?
- The other black athlete, Abdul-Jabbar, is doing yardwork (spraying a hose). This is significant because at this point in the ad we have seen two recognizable athletes not being portrayed as athletes. So far, one black man is a deliveryman, and another black man is doing yardwork. Despite the fact that he is wearing a lavender polo-shirt, he is not representing his success in his sport. Why cast Abdul-Jabbar this way? Couldn't he have just as easily been shooting baskets in his driveway? You could argue that Abdul-Jabbar is retired from his respective sport, but so is Mia Hamm, the next athlete we see.
- Hamm is seen pulling up to a house where two current female soccer players are rushing out, presumably to either practice or a game. Hamm is driving a mini-van, the undeniable "white, middle-class soccer mom" status symbol. Why is she in a mini-van? Why isn't she picking up any of her black former teammates?
- Peyton Manning is our final celebrity athlete to appear, also rushing out of the house, presumably on a road trip with his team. As Garnett reminds Manning to get his playbook (which he forgot), you see the self-satisfied nod of a servant who has once again protected his master's well-being and best interest. Why end the ad with the only interaction being the roles of service position and served position solidified?

The answer to these questions has everything to do with the ever-prevalent racial bias still flourishing for all our eyes to see. Conscious casting decisions had to be made during the conception and creation of this advertisement. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt to Gatorade's ad agency (which also holds Altria (Philip Morris) as a client, a company centuries deep in slave labor and share-cropped tobacco money), as most people who are not only tolerant of but traffickers of racially-biased material are not aware of how what they are doing contributes to primitive and dehumanizing thought patterns concerning subjugated peoples. But benefit of the doubt aside, one must wonder how Gatorade, the most powerful brand of its kind can let these subtleties slip by without a word of caution from media consultants who surely did not miss them.
Some are ignorant and stubborn enough to claim that Abdul-Jabbar and Garnett should have protested their roles if there really was negative association occurring. Maybe there is some truth to that, but I definitely believe that if I was a professional athlete with multiple endorsement contracts and infinite demands on my time, energy, and likeness, something like protesting my role as a black man doing yardwork in a Gatorade ad is not a high priority, if I even notice its potentially racially-biased association. So do not indict the athletes as perpetrators. Their roles were almost indefinitely chosen for them.

This ad is just one example of what exists in so much of our over-stimulating media presence bombarding our lives today. We miss these subtleties often because we are so desensitized to media frenzy that it is difficult to remain conscious and aware of underlying messages and themes in all the avenues through which we are exposed.

More to come on this issue, as through conversation I have found deep and genuine interest. Think about these sorts of decisions made behind the programming, as you watch television (especially advertisements, music videos, and news/current events programs), movies, and think honestly about it.

I'll be posting a piece about ESPN, and also a piece about BET as part of the Viacom group. So stay tuned....but keep thinking!