Do you think this home office advert is racist?

[mightyWBA]

All the "criminals" are white.

Steps away from the computer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT-ywCilmdA&feature=relmfu

[dotty.]

it's quite realistic about the type of anti-social behavior that leads to serious crime. and it also is saying to me that most of the perps shown in the clips have drug problems and are probably on benefit and so it is using one demographic to trigger a response in another demographic

[emmie]

not sure that they all are, and criminals come in all colours, shapes and sizes.

[mightyWBA]

Somebody mentioned it at work today Dotty,the feeling was that it was a bit unbalanced in showing all the criminals as white.
Adverts these days usually show a cross section of society but this doesn't,focusing on a particular ethnic group i.e. white.

This is chatterbank ,I'm after peoples opinions that's all,not stirring anything.

[mightyWBA]

Criminals certainly do come from all sections of society em.

[tonyav]

I think that whoever made this film is / was scared of the race card being pulled.

[mightyWBA]

That was the general feeling Tony.

[AB Editor]

Isn't it mostly in black & white?

[tonyav]

I thought it would be, WBA.

[hc4361]

Isn't the girl in the last clip black?
You can't tell what colour or race the 4 lads in the hoodies are.

[hc4361]

The first lad could be black, too.

[emmie]

i have viewed this several times, and am not entirely convinced they are all white. But if so then perhaps they could have shown some of the riots of last year, that would certainly even things up a bit. If someone commits a crime it doesn't matter the colour of the skin, they are still a criminal.

[Zeuhl]

<All the "criminals" are white>

Are they? Really? You sure?

The girls arguing in the shop?
The guy kicking the wing mirror?
The fracas on the bus?
The kids smashing the bus shelter?

I've watched it a few times and can't be sure.
The most sensible assumption is that the Director was briefed to be 'ambiguous' hence cctv style b&w with low contrast.

Perhaps you are seeing what you want to see

[anotheoldgit]

One notices this kind of thing all the time, it is often seen the bad guys being anything other than white.

It happened during last years riots, it was mainly only whites being arrested that were shown in close up.

But then in adverts this type of thing is not only confined to colour, how many times does one see the female of the species shown as the lazy, unintelligent, and totally useless one?

Not very often, it seems.

[emmie]

it is quite grainy, but i reckon one of the girls spitting at the asian chap is mixed race.

[emmie]

AOG, that is patently not true. You better have a look again at the arrests, and those who were featured prominently on the news.

[emmie]

unedifying, but this was a mixture of youngsters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP07fYGR31k

[anotheoldgit]

em10

http://www.dailymail....ome-hard-looters.html

[Zeuhl]

<One notices this kind of thing all the time>

As posted above, you may be filtering for what you expect to see aog.

It is very unlikely that this film would be briefed to show only white (or black) people - that is a can of worms (as we know on AB) so the film is deliberately obscure and ambiguous and your presupposition it only shows whites has already been challenged by several other ABers.

Your point about 'male laziness' has some foundation but is due to commercial realities not politics.

Many products advertised on TV are targeted at women and (rightly or wrongly) advertisers choose to pander in that way. It may be annoying but it isn't illegal and it sells product.