Interracial Family Cheerios Commercial

I know this is old news but I haven't had a chance to formally address it outside of a post of Facebook. So for those of you who haven't heard there's a Cheerios commercial on YouTube that features an interracial family. A Caucasian mom, African American dad, and their sweet little daughter (with awesome hair). Of course here's the video for reference:

Now after this video was released there were a number of negative racist comments made; which to those of us in interracial relationships (myself included) are not terribly surprised by, but at some point it does just become ridiculous and makes one wonder about the world we live in. The issue of interracial dating is one of those topics that isn't often discussed and it has been something that has interested me since I was young and the first person I had a crush on, at the age of six, happened to be a different race than me. I didn't think much of it until I mentioned it to my family and his race was mentioned more than his name, but that's a story for another post.

Back to this commercial...Cheerios did an awesome job of portraying a loving family having an interesting encounter involving the cereal, and then they were demonized and on some level threatening the world of those who chose post those hateful comments. Racism is far from over in this country and interracial dating, although no longer illegal, is still fighting to be seen as "OK" by many. I just find the negative reactions to this commercial ridiculous and hope than one day things like this won't even be a topic of discussion, unless it's to say, "Man I could really go for some Cheerios right now."

Resources:
Video:
http://www.youtube.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYofm5d5Xdw

**Disclaimer: The above video is property of YouTube© and I do not claim to own it.**

Back from Impromptu Hiatus!

Hi All,

Originally A Look Inside was a blog dedicated to analyzing media content, for it's inclusiveness (or lack thereof) and messages. I'm back from my unmentioned and impromptu hiatus. Along with analyzing media content, I'll also be focusing on the topic of interracial dating.

Spending my awesome birthday at a farm in Queens 

Stay tuned...

Lianna

My War On LEGO!

So my girlfriend and I decided to take a trip to the LEGO Store on Fifth Avenue in NY and the events that unfolded after were epic enough and relevant enough to this blog that I had to share.  The following are emails that I sent to the LEGO Corporation and their responses. Read through and make your own judgements. I will comment at the end.



July 27, 2012

My girlfriend and I were making Lego characters of ourselves at the lego store in NY near Rockefellar Center. We were in the build a character section and I'm African American and the only options in were yellow legos. My girlfriend was pretty upset because she wanted to build a Lego that looked like me and we felt like we had to settle. I asked a store associate and he said we could just color them in (which is not possible unless I want my Lego to have no face). So my question is in the build your own section why are there no available alternate choices for skin tone? And is there something that can be done? I loveLegos and it was our first visit to the Lego store and we were really excited but disappointed at that aspect.

Sincerely,

Lianna


~~5:00pm~~

Dear LEGO® friend,

Thank you for e-mailing the LEGO Group.  We are happy to know that your family enjoys building with LEGO toys.  Your comment and/or question is important to us and we will answer you as quickly as possible. If you need immediate assistance, please call us at 1-800-835-4386.

FOR YOUR SECURITY, PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. CONTACT US AT 1 800 835-4386 WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION.  WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO COLLECT THIS INFORMATION IN GENERAL EMAILS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.

Best Wishes,
LEGO Customer Service

PS. This email has been sent from an auto-notification system that cannot accept incoming email. Please do not respond to this message.


~~5:17pm~~

Dear Lianna,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

LEGO® sets are sold in 130 countries, so we try really hard to make sure there are all sorts of LEGO toys suitable for all children (both girls and boys) of every age and from every culture. Actually we have a team of experts in Denmark whose job it is to invent LEGO sets. I know they spend countless hours checking that every toy they dream up is:

Creative - so LEGO fans can do or make anything
Imaginative - so any idea can be brought to life
Challenging - for real hands-on (and "minds-on"!) play
..And fun!

We believe skin color is not important so we've given most of our mini-figures a neutral (yellow) skin. We sometimes change this when trying to make a figure look just like the real person. We then also copy the person's hair-style, face and clothes. That's why the LEGO NBA Basketball mini-figures and some of the film stars don't  have the neutral skin color. I hope this letter helps explain why some LEGO mini-figures are yellow, and some aren't!

Thank you again for contacting us.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this email or call one of our friendly Customer Care Advisors at 1-800-835-4386 (from within the US or Canada) or 1-860-749-0706 (from outside the US or Canada). We are available Monday through Friday from 8AM - 10PM EST and Saturday through Sunday from 10AM to 6PM EST.  Please have your reference number handy if you need to get in touch with us: 031393822A

Happy building!

Jessica
LEGO Direct Consumer Services


If you wish to reply to this message, use the "Reply" button on your e-mail program. Please do not make any changes to the subject line, as this may lead to a long delay in responding to you. Please note that we cannot accept email attachments at this time.

We know we're lucky to have many loyal fans around the world, and we're always pleased to get comments back. Please click the link below and answer a quick 4 question survey to help us provide the best customer service to LEGO fans and their families.
http://www.econsumeraffairs.
com/lsi/ensurvey.html?F1=031393822A

Join the LEGO Club!  Sign up now to receive the FREE LEGO Club Magazine
http://club1.lego.com/en-US/
legomagazine/default.aspx


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 30, 2012

~~4:17pm~~

Hello LEGO Direct Consumer Services!

Thank you for getting back to me. I have a question is it possible to request a replacement Lego with brown color skin and black hair? I wanted to give it as a gift and surprise my girlfriend I don't mind waiting for the piece to come in and here is a the Legos face and hands I'd like in brown. I'd appreciate any assistance with this. We have an anniversary coming up and it'd be an ideal gift. I also included a photo of myself, that we tried to make the legolook like.

Thank you again,

Lianna

~~5:18pm~~

Dear Lianna,

Thanks for getting in touch with us about replacement parts for your minifigure creation.

I apologize, Lianna, but we're unsure which parts you're looking for specifically. We cannot accept attachments at this time. If you're looking for an African American skin tone on a minifigure, I would recommend that you check out our Friends line. We've recently created a new line, called LEGO Friends, that contains this type of minifigure. Her name is Andrea and she may be exactly what you're looking for! You can customize her to look how you would like, however, you would need to purchase different hair through our Pick A Brick system. You can purchase different hair for her by searching PAB in the search box of the LEGO website!

If you would like to view the products that Andrea is currently in, please use the following link:http://search2.lego.com/?q=
Andrea&lang=2057&cc=US

We hope that this helps with your creation!

Thank you again for contacting us.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this email or call one of our friendly Customer Care Advisors at 1-800-835-4386 (from within the US or Canada) or 1-860-749-0706(from outside the US or Canada). We are available Monday through Friday from 8AM - 10PM EST and Saturday through Sunday from 10AM to 6PM EST.  Please have your reference number handy if you need to get in touch with us: 031393822B

Happy building!

Taylor
LEGO Direct Consumer Services


If you wish to reply to this message, use the "Reply" button on your e-mail program. Please do not make any changes to the subject line, as this may lead to a long delay in responding to you. Please note that we cannot accept email attachments at this time.

We know we're lucky to have many loyal fans around the world, and we're always pleased to get comments back. Please click the link below and answer a quick 4 question survey to help us provide the best customer service toLEGO fans and their families.
http://www.econsumeraffairs.
com/lsi/ensurvey.html?F1=031393822B

Join the LEGO Club!  Sign up now to receive the FREE LEGO Club Magazine
http://club1.lego.com/en-US/
legomagazine/default.aspx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July 31, 2012

~~9:55am~~

Dear LEGO Direct Consumer Services,

Thank you to getting back to me. I know of the Lego Friends collection, however I am an avid fan of the originalLego. Also since my girlfriend and I were trying to recreate ourselves from the Lego characters the Andrea character would look silly next to the original Lego character. I also feel slightly uncomfortable with the way theLego Friends characters portray a sort of hyper femininity. 

I've played with legos for years and I think the original Legos have always been great for all adults and children of all genders. I'd also like to express that I feel like my concerns aren't really being addressed in our email cimmunication. I was excited that I was directed, in your last email, to an online pick-a-brick system to recreate myself and I didn't even mined paying again to do so. But I went through all the Lego heads and once again even though there were more choices all of the Lego heads were yellow. You stated yellow is supposed to be a neutral color but if the Legos were neutral they'd be purple or some color not close to skin color. In the cartoon series The Simpsons, the characters are yellow but characters of other races are brown, etc. So coming from a media studies background, I recognize that there's this clear sense to the viewer that the Simpsons are Caucasian. But I'm going off target here. I'm not trying to start some crusade or cause trouble I just want a replacement Lego head with a smiley face and glasses and hands that are brown color to give my girlfriend for our anniversary. I don't feel like I'm asking a lot and I'm still confused about why this option doesn't exist at the very least online. 

In your first email to me you said skin color didn't matter. In my opinion the only people to whom skin color doesn't matter are those who it doesn't affect. To people of color, being anything other than Caucasian makes it somewhat difficult to live in this world. There's a lot of discrimination we face everyday. And I feel like by Lego not addressing my issue makes me feel like as a person of color my thoughts and opinions don't matter. Like your toys aren't inclusive unless they are portraying a stereotype. I'm not a basketball player, or hyper-feminine. I'm just a person trying to get the correct product so I can give a wonderful gift to a special person in my life. So please stop writing me off and try to see my side of this and work with me, please.

Thank you and have a great day!

Lianna

-- 

Lianna Newman

Email | liannanewman@gmail.com 

Cell | 570-234-6341

Online Portfolio | http://liannanewman.weebly.

com/index.html

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


August 2, 2012

~~11:03am~~


Dear Lianna,

Thanks for getting back in touch with us.

Lianna, we are sorry for the disappointment you felt because you were unable to build a replica figure of yourself.LEGO® sets are sold in 130 countries, so we try really hard to make sure there are all sorts of LEGO toys suitable for all children (both girls and boys) of every age and from every culture. As one of the world's leading brands for families with children, The LEGO Company prides itself on consistently delivering quality products to encourage creativity, fun, imagination and playful learning among children.  Incorporating themes of constructive play, storytelling and role-play, LEGO products offer children the power to explore their thoughts and curiosities on their terms, allowing them to create whatever they imagine.

I'd like to expand upon the earlier explanation provided to you about why the color yellow is used for the majority of our mini figures. It was chosen specifically for the color of LEGO mini-figures, not to represent the white or Caucasian race, but to be a universal or international color that would appeal to all LEGO builders in the 120 different countries where LEGO products are sold.  Part of the "magic" of LEGO toys is that a child can decide what a mini-figure represents; in fact, LEGO sets marketed in Africa, Japan, Denmark or elsewhere in the world are exactly the same as those marketed in the United States.  While we currently do not target or market to any specific ethnic group, we are constantly working on new products along with evaluating consumer comments about our existing assortment.  Thus, it is always a possibility that someday we may introduce figures that represent different multi-cultural groups.

To reiterate, Lianna, most LEGO figures have a yellow skin color. We have chosen this neutral color in the past to avoid assigning a specific ethnicity in sets in which there were no characters represented. In this way, LEGOfigures would be universally acceptable all over the world and fans could assign their own individual roles. However, in conjunction with some licensed products, in which we want figures to be as authentic as possible, such as NBA characters, Harry Potter™, Star wars™, and others we plan in the future, some figures included will now be represented in different ethnic roles to stay true to their characterization reflective of their storyline.

You also expressed feedback about the hyper-femininity of the figures in our new LEGO Friends line. One thing that was very clear from over four years of research for our new LEGO Friends product assortment is that girls are very interested in the interior details, accessories and role play situations of the models that they create so that is why we, through LEGO Friends, have given careful attention to this area. Further, the girls found it difficult to identify with the minifigure’s unrealistic appearance and requested a figure that was more relatable and detailed. As role play is central to the LEGO Friends experience, we invested significant research and resources into creating the mini-doll figure which features similar constructability as the traditional minifigures.

Thank you again for contacting us.  If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this email or call one of our friendly Customer Care Advisors at 1-800-835-4386 (from within the US or Canada) or 1-860-749-0706(from outside the US or Canada). We are available Monday through Friday from 8AM - 10PM EST and Saturday through Sunday from 10AM to 6PM EST.  Please have your reference number handy if you need to get in touch with us: 031393822

Again, we are happy you shared your thoughts with us and want to assure that we are in agreement with you--all builders should be proud of their heritage. We certainly hope that you and your girlfriend will continue to spend many happy hours of creative building with our products.

Kind regards,

Moira
LEGO Direct Consumer Services


If you wish to reply to this message, use the "Reply" button on your e-mail program. Please do not make any changes to the subject line, as this may lead to a long delay in responding to you. Please note that we cannot accept email attachments at this time.

We know we're lucky to have many loyal fans around the world, and we're always pleased to get comments back. Please click the link below and answer a quick 4 question survey to help us provide the best customer service toLEGO fans and their families.
http://www.econsumeraffairs.
com/lsi/ensurvey.html?F1=031393822C

Join the LEGO Club!  Sign up now to receive the FREE LEGO Club Magazine
http://club1.lego.com/en-US/
legomagazine/default.aspx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I even went to their website hoping for a larger selection in the "Pick-A-Brick" section and all the heads were yellow. I researched and found they had sent the first email to some one else:

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/lego-criticised-over-toy-pieces

And! There was this random site with a Rosa Park Lego:

http://www.littlecolouredbricks.com/2010/04/02/black-lego-minifigs.html

Either way I know I can't necessarily change the world but it sure as hell won't be because of a lack of trying. I still like LEGO just want them to get more inclusive.

Dear AT&T, Please Get With The Times

AT&T Future President/Train Advertisement
(Please click on the link above to view ad being analyzed)

The first time I saw this advertisement I thought oh wow I could change my ticket using my phone, is that legit? Then I realized it cost money to use the internet on my phone and I switched from AT&T to Verizon, so it didn't affect me anyway.

The second time I saw this commercial I paid attention to the fact that the president they are predicting for "Sometime in the Future" was white. I sat and thought long and hard about it and realized that the commercial which may have been relevant a few years ago no longer is, since we now have a biracial President currently in office. Some of the messages I got from this advertisement were: (1) what's happening now is just a fluke, (2) we have a biracial president, so what? and (3) the next presidents are going to be white. I personally drew the conclusion that the company AT&T favors white people in the white house, since their commercial is depicting a white president.

In the commercial I recognized that the mother could be considered racially ambiguous but the more I see the commercial the more clear it is that she is white. Even if one parent was white and another was Latino/Latina or Asian, or another race other than white I think it could have been a very effective commercial. I just find it interesting that a company that sells products from another company (Apple) who bases themselves on originality is so set on depicting the old way of thinking about U.S. presidency. Further more I feel like AT&T is catering to a specific audience in their portrayal of the future president. I personally switched to Verizon for my own reasons, but as a person of color and a former faithful AT&T customer this commercial would have given me a reason to switch. I think the company needs to pay more attention to the message a commercial like this is sending and the time (aka having a non-white president) in which the commercial is being created.

Fisher-Price® - 30 Years Later Same Old, Same Old

So I am soon going to be the lovely owner of two baby rats and as a good mother would do, I was toy shopping for my little ones. While surfing the net I came across a picture of a rat playing inside a small child's toy house and just knew I had to get one for my rats and that is how I came across the Fisher-Price® advertisements that I'll be analyzing today.

So this advertisement is for the "Little People® Peek' n Discover Backyard" toy. It features a 2 year old little girl whose race is black (African American) and you can clearly see the toy in its entirety.

 Then we have this advertisement:

When I clicked on the first advertisement this came up along with other views of the same toy. We can still see as much of the toy here as we did before the only difference is the little girl in this ad is white (Caucasian).

Fisher-Price® has multiple toys being advertised by different children the majority of them being white, and when the child advertising the toy is of a different race they felt the need to include a second advertisement with a child that is white. The message this is sending is: "Even though you see a black child playing with the toy, white children can play with it too." Now this may seem like I'm harshly critiquing Fisher-Price®, but how are non-white communities supposed to feel when they see white children in advertisements with toys and there isn't a second advertisement with a child of a different race, but when the main advertisement features a non-white child suddenly there needs to be a second advertisement with a white child?

To further analyze this ad the toy itself had extra features that the child could play with. In order to bring attention to these features the website included close-ups of a child's hand touching the movable parts of the toy:

Looking at these pictures we see that the child's hand most likely belongs to the second little girl (the Caucasian one). Why didn't Fisher-Price® alternate the race of the hand of the child advertised? The message I personally take away from this is, the non-white communities should be happy with any type of representation, and it seems to be more of a second thought than a necessity to include them in these advertisements.

On the subject of representation and to go along with the previous advertisement I did find at least one Fisher-Price® advertisement featuring a non-white child and there was no second advertisement with a white child:

I will also include two other parts of the advertisement to make this point more clear:

The toy is "My First Dollhouse™", and as we can see from the additional close-ups of the ad provided, the family (the image on the left), that is included in this version of the toy, is black (African American). We can also see that the race of the child holding the up one of the family members is also black, (and mostly likely belongs to the little girl we saw in the main ad). So conclusions to draw from this advertisement are: Fisher-Price® is somewhat consciously thinking about how these ad are made, appear, and the audience they are targeting. Did you ever notice how when the toys appear to be a different race (other than white) the child advertising it tends to be the same race? The close up of the little girl holding the mom doesn't even serve a purpose, which further leads me to questions what's the point of even showing her hand here? In the first ad, the little girl was demonstrating the different movable parts of the "Little People® Peek' n Discover Backyard" toy, whereas here we just see a hand showing us what the ad on the left has already shown us.

To take things a step further why is it I've never seen a white child advertising a toy with the race of the toy family being, non-white? And why is it that the family set has to be the same race all around? Are we still that backwards about interracial dating/interracial families that the toys can't even reflect what true families are like? And don't even get me started on the lack of LGBT representation in toys because that would be an entire analysis by itself. Basically the point I'm trying to make is the world itself has come along way, and still has a long way to go, but despite us moving forwarding the toys we give our children seem to still be stuck in a never changing, black and white (no pun intended) zone. I only hope that one day children's toys can reflect the real society we live in, instead of the close-minded ideals of a few individuals.

As for the title of this analysis, there was another Fisher-Price® advertisement I wanted to critique, because it included a 1972 advertisement of a toy:


So here we see the current advertisement on the left and the ad from 1972 on the right for the Fisher-Price® "Little People® Happy Houseboat". Notice anything similar. Yes the child's gender has changed, but what about their race? The 1972 advertisement stated, "The original Little People House Boat from 1972. Do you remember?" And all I could think is yeah I remember very few (if any) non-white children appearing in toys ads. Let's make a change shall we? Just because we remember our history doesn't mean we have to continue to repeat it.

Resources: 
Pictures
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=lpproduct&pid=52504
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=5851&e=product&prodcat=dollhouse-thumb&pid=55342
http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=lpproduct&pid=52965

**Disclaimer: All photos are property of Fisher-Price® and I do not claim to own any of them.**

I'm Glad I Failed

The advertisement I chose was from a booklet from a conference (Creating Change) I recently attended in Dallas, Texas. I chose the advertisement because of its uniqueness and subject matter. The subject of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) youth is something I feel very strongly about. Organizations like the Trevor Project and other LGBT suicide prevention hotlines are really important and are rarely talked about. I am very intrigued by the advertisement, because before I figured out what organization it was advertising, all I saw was “I’m Glad I Failed.” Failure is something that we usually deem as a negative thing so to see that in large font on an advertisement made me want to read more about what this person was glad they failed. As I read on and realized they failed at a suicide attempt, it intrigued me more, because I had never seen an advertisement like this. In the past I have seen advertisements for crisis hotlines, which just have some people hanging out, and the number to call at the bottom, but this ad brought the purpose of the Trevor Project to life. By putting a face to LGBTQ youth suicide the advertisement makes the subject more personal and more real.

The image on the advertisement is an Asian girl, who is about high school age and attractive. The expression on her face is neither happy nor sad; rather she looks content. I would categorize her as feminine based on her long hair although we do not know how she dresses, since the shot is mostly from the neck up. I think the ad does a great job of trying to be inclusive, since she is not a stereotypical Caucasian gay male, which when we think of LGBT issues, that is the majority of representation we usually see in the media. The ad also plays on the idea of stereotypes in which Asians are supposed to be intelligent, so the idea of an Asian youth failing at something can also be an attention grabber. Another thing the advertisement hits on is the fact that statistics show that girls and women are more likely to attempt suicide and fail, than boys and men.

I personally like the ad and even did some research into for this analysis. It is actually one in a series of four. The others are an African American gay male, a Latina gay female, and a Caucasian gay male. My only issue with the ad campaign is everyone identifies as gay except for the Asian girl, I think bisexual and transgender youth should have been represented in this campaign. Overall I think the advertisement is very affective and original.

Resources: 
Pictures
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/news/im-glad-i-failed

**Disclaimer: All photos are property of The Trevor Project© and I do not claim to own any of them.**