Has anyone else seen the television commercial for Cisco Systems where the "Boss" walks into the data center and demands to know where their security is? It's shot in the same style as are many business oriented commercials, with self-consciously wandering clarinet solos, rapid fire dialogue in which everyone just repeats what the previous speaker said, and comic simplicity masquerading as Today's Business Environment. I think this style started with the ridiculous shipping industry commercials where no one does any work or worries about anything because doggoneit, FedEx allows you to track your packages. Anyway, this Cisco commercial is more of the same, only this one has something I've never seen before - a toothy, cartoonish Indian (as in Gandhi, not Geronimo) dude grinning like Chief Wahoo on meth. Is this the new racist achetype for the 21st century? Am I to believe now, surely as I think "Boss" when the besuited Old White Guy strolls in (thanks to Cisco for repotting that plant), that short, brown, eager dude is Mr. Computer? The old "good" stereotype like "good with money" or "can really sing and dance?" People (I can think of a few) may think I'm making a meltdown from a misprint, but this crap is exactly the kind of stuff our kids will look at in 40 years, nod to each other in a properly bemused outrage, and wonder why their parents' society was so racist.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Post a Comment