bodytosell

In this map, I have conducted research on the use of diversity in commercials and advertisements we consume every day. After watching “Do the right thing”, a film from 1989, directed by Spike Lee, I got interested in how we identify our self with the people that we are watching on the screen.

Currently, in almost every commercial, you see a person playing a main role which is using the product. You as a consumer should identify with this person and start seeing yourself using this product as well. Commercials are rarely long and have to grab the attention of the customer in almost immediately. There is almost never any dialogue. This lack of dialogue makes the person in the commercial just a body that has to perform an action. The people watching the commercial are getting thier information about the situatiën created in commercial moosly the the body and the body language.

In my research, I started reading about how white and black bodies are used to sell products. I came across some articles in which this topic was addressed. One of these articles, which was published on the website of the NRC, there was a focus on trends that exist for casting actors and actresses for commercials. Currently, companies tend to use light-tinted people with an afro, because it's their skin colour could be considered as the perfect compromise; it finds itself in the middle of a white and dark persons skin. The writer in the NRC article calls it “playing safe”. “Playing safe” is something that has always happened in the commercial world.

After finding these results I was interested in another place where I consume advertisements, this lead me to Instagram, a platform on which I am confronted with various commercial posts. After every 3 Instagram stories, Instagram gives me an advertisement. Yet, what is interesting is that the advertisements are personalized according to my profile and data. Thus, Instagram is providing me with advertisements in which I should recognize myself.

To find out if the information I read was true, I looked up what the most-watched commercial block is on the Dutch television. It turned out that the 10 minutes before the 20:00 NOS news starts, is the most popular commercial block.. I watched the commercials that came prior to the news and noted won for each commercial if there where no people, only white people, colred people or both white and colored people. This are the results:

I see awareness of what a body can represent as an impotent responsibility for me as a filmmaker. Casting is very important as a filmmaker and photographer to complete the story I want to tell. I want to train myself more to be aware of who you see and why.

Watch the video and read the text after.

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/06/21/een-afro-en-een-lichte-tint-je-bent-geknipt-voor-de-reclame-a3964607

https://theconversation.com/do-minorities-prefer-ads-with-white-people-82882

https://kijkonderzoek.nl/component/kijkcijfers/file,d1-0-0-p

https://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/producent-na-ophef-over-te-gekleurd-promofilmpje-dit-zijn-echte-rotterdammers~a1301a4c/

Connection to my Majer

A year ago, a producer where I had a previous internship, got criticized by the people of Rotterdam, about a film he made for the Eurovision Song Contest. In the film, he showed the people that live in Rotterdam. But after releasing the film, a lot of people were complaining about the percentage of white and black people in the film. They claimed that there were to much people with a black skin colour compared to the amount of white skinned people.. But the producer only worked with 'real' people, doing their 'real' jobs. There was no casting like in a commercial. He worked with the people he knew with different jobs and roles within the city. So should he have asked more white people to participate, or do we accept that in a city as Rottteram white people are less present? I think this is an interesting topic, definitely after seeing the results from the analyzing tests I did before.

Analyzing the bodies I saw in the advertisements was an experiment and made me aware that I almost never see only black bodies. The times I saw them they were mixed with white bodies within a friend group or relationship. This created really diverse situations within the story. The only time I saw only black bodies was in Instagram advertisements. This was always in an advertisement for running shoes or other sports gear, which in my eyes was based on a stereotypical runner.