The baby's adopted. Who the hell cares?
"The wrong colour baby"
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Originally Posted by Makosi's pants:
“Maybe I missed something, but can anyone tell me why it would have been impossible to choose a white female to model as the mother?”
“Maybe I missed something, but can anyone tell me why it would have been impossible to choose a white female to model as the mother?”
Because they were a bit dim and cast the mother before the baby.
Hindsight probably taught them they should've picked the best baby first then cast the mother accordingly, but they didn't.
Once they'd cast the mother, they couldn't fire her by saying "sorry but you don't match the baby we picked after we picked you".
The nature of the responses on this thread, and the fact that has generated more debate than any other topic in the series demonstrate perfectly why businesses tend to play it safe with skin colour when casting families in advertising.
Companies don't want their advertising campaigns to provoke a national debate about race and skin colour, for fear of negative connotations - they just want to promote their products.
Generally businesses want as broad appeal as possible, especially in something like baby toys where there is a huge market.
It is not racist to make an observation that it is highly unusual for a black mother to have a white ginger-haired baby - not an absolute impossibility, but unusual certainly and it would be a bold company to take this sort of risk if they are spending millions on an ad campaign, as there is a danger that that would be become the focus of the public's interest rather than the actual product they are going to huge expense to sell.
There are exceptions of course, one being the famous Benneton Ads from 90s :
http://abduzeedo.com/awesome-and-con...l-ads-benetton
Some of them were brilliant! But this was a situation where the company deliberately wanted shock and provoke - not normally the case with adverts, and obviously not the case in the YA.
Companies don't want their advertising campaigns to provoke a national debate about race and skin colour, for fear of negative connotations - they just want to promote their products.
Generally businesses want as broad appeal as possible, especially in something like baby toys where there is a huge market.
It is not racist to make an observation that it is highly unusual for a black mother to have a white ginger-haired baby - not an absolute impossibility, but unusual certainly and it would be a bold company to take this sort of risk if they are spending millions on an ad campaign, as there is a danger that that would be become the focus of the public's interest rather than the actual product they are going to huge expense to sell.
There are exceptions of course, one being the famous Benneton Ads from 90s :
http://abduzeedo.com/awesome-and-con...l-ads-benetton
Some of them were brilliant! But this was a situation where the company deliberately wanted shock and provoke - not normally the case with adverts, and obviously not the case in the YA.
Yes it made me very uncomfortable. They looked cute together and the model mother was very natural and easy with the baby. She's adopted, or the father's from a previous relationship, or a genetic throwback, or who cares? If anything it made the packaging stand out more like any contrast of colour will do.
Originally Posted by Orion:
“Was anyone else left feeling a bit uncomfortable with all the moaning about the baby being the wrong colour, or the family 'not looking right together'.
Mixed race families are very common nowadays. I was surprised when several of the young apprentices found it unacceptable for the packaging or hilarious to have a mother and daughter of different skin tones. Then I was surprised again when Lord Sugar pitched in saying "Is the child adopted?".
I'm not one of these people who deplores the lack of, say, disabled models in ad campaigns, but it's bizarre to act like a mixed race family is so unusual or even completely impossible.”
“Was anyone else left feeling a bit uncomfortable with all the moaning about the baby being the wrong colour, or the family 'not looking right together'.
Mixed race families are very common nowadays. I was surprised when several of the young apprentices found it unacceptable for the packaging or hilarious to have a mother and daughter of different skin tones. Then I was surprised again when Lord Sugar pitched in saying "Is the child adopted?".
I'm not one of these people who deplores the lack of, say, disabled models in ad campaigns, but it's bizarre to act like a mixed race family is so unusual or even completely impossible.”
I'm mixed race myself. My parents have 4 children and we're all completely different when it comes to skin colour. My brothers are very dark and look Indian and my sister is very pale and looks more mediterranean. I wasn't too offended by the kids saying it but I thought Alan Sugar would talk some sense into them rather than agree. Even if was impossible (which it isn't), what's wrong with showing maybe a family where the dad was widower who remarried? Tbh, when I look at a product I do just that, I look at the product. No idea why they were so hung up on race. It makes me feel like we're back in the 1920s.
Originally Posted by lovecat86:
“I'm mixed race myself. My parents have 4 children and we're all completely different when it comes to skin colour. My brothers are very dark and look Indian and my sister is very pale and looks more mediterranean. I wasn't too offended by the kids saying it but I thought Alan Sugar would talk some sense into them rather than agree. Even if was impossible (which it isn't), what's wrong with showing maybe a family where the dad was widower who remarried? Tbh, when I look at a product I do just that, I look at the product. No idea why they were so hung up on race. It makes me feel like we're back in the 1920s.”
“I'm mixed race myself. My parents have 4 children and we're all completely different when it comes to skin colour. My brothers are very dark and look Indian and my sister is very pale and looks more mediterranean. I wasn't too offended by the kids saying it but I thought Alan Sugar would talk some sense into them rather than agree. Even if was impossible (which it isn't), what's wrong with showing maybe a family where the dad was widower who remarried? Tbh, when I look at a product I do just that, I look at the product. No idea why they were so hung up on race. It makes me feel like we're back in the 1920s.”
but being mixed race, (im black btw) you wouldnt really notice it, as youre from a mixed family. it does look odd. as in a baby shoot, you expect the mother to be the mother of the baby, in family shoots with a mixed age range you can expect them to be unrelated. but casting a full mixed race family would have made sense. he did laugh and rightly so, because it seems a stupid mistake to make. of course mixed race children all look different but generally, as the rule goes, ive never seen a baby look that white from a black mother, and as to adoption, you hardly think "ooh a baby ad on tv, the baby must be adopted!"
Ok, so you'd expect the mother and daughter to be related - why are you assuming they were not related? How many mixed race posters need to say it's not that unusual to have mother and child to be different skin tones?
Mr Mcavity, I don't buy that the very fact of our discussion proves Alan Sugar right. If he'd said "No black babies OR mothers" then I'd object to that too. That wouldn't prove advertisers right not to use any black people in their adverts.
Mr Mcavity, I don't buy that the very fact of our discussion proves Alan Sugar right. If he'd said "No black babies OR mothers" then I'd object to that too. That wouldn't prove advertisers right not to use any black people in their adverts.
Originally Posted by iseloid:
“but being mixed race, (im black btw) you wouldnt really notice it, as youre from a mixed family.
it does look odd. as in a baby shoot, you expect the mother to be the mother of the baby, in family shoots with a mixed age range you can expect them to be unrelated. but casting a full mixed race family would have made sense. he did laugh and rightly so, because it seems a stupid mistake to make. of course mixed race children all look different but generally, as the rule goes, ive never seen a baby look that white from a black mother, and as to adoption, you hardly think "ooh a baby ad on tv, the baby must be adopted!"”
“but being mixed race, (im black btw) you wouldnt really notice it, as youre from a mixed family.
it does look odd. as in a baby shoot, you expect the mother to be the mother of the baby, in family shoots with a mixed age range you can expect them to be unrelated. but casting a full mixed race family would have made sense. he did laugh and rightly so, because it seems a stupid mistake to make. of course mixed race children all look different but generally, as the rule goes, ive never seen a baby look that white from a black mother, and as to adoption, you hardly think "ooh a baby ad on tv, the baby must be adopted!"”
What an odd argument. So, by your logic, me being mixed white and Asian means I'm automatically less prejudiced against mixed white and black families? Kudos to me. I don't honestly think it matters, plenty of people in here have voiced a similar opinion and I doubt that all of them are mixed race. It's not the every day Tom, Dick and Harry's opinion I object to anyway but broadcasting the view on BBC is a different kettle of fish.
You've never seen one? Present for ya:
http://live.drjays.com/index.php/201...to-white-baby/
In fact, you can even have twins that are born different colours:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...ns-black-white
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ite-twins.html
The covert racism in this thread actually bothers me. I'm glad that there are some people in here who thought that Alan was wrong to make and song and dance about it. He's a businessman, not a scientist, and it shows. While he can use his business expertise to say that it was a mistake to cast them from a selling POV, I think he is a twonk for his comment "Baby adopted was it?" or similar.
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