Branding Black. Implicit Racism in Marketing
Last week, we attacked "nation branding" noting that it fails about 90 % of the time compared to product marketing which only fails about 50% of the time, We need some clarification here.
In the case of product marketing, every product is also a brand. But marketing and advertising is only one factor in creating brand identity, which like human personality is the result of many factors -- not just our attempts to be seen a certain way.
The same applies to countries. Public perceptions of nation identity are determined by many, many factors, if only because societies and cultures are so much more complex than, say, running shoes or razors or cars. In point of fact, "nation branding" as it is carried out by governments fails almost 100 % of the time where the attempt is to establish a national identity analogous in to a human identity.
In the case of product branding, branding campaigns sometimes work; sometimes not-- but corporate advertising and marketing are not the only factors.
Let's take Toyota and Lexus as example. Toyotas and Lexuses are made by the same company -- TMC (Toyota Motor Corporation) and are both solid and successful brands.
But....if the Lexus brand just depended on advertising and product placement-- then Lexus would be the PimpMobile. It isn't, of course. But only because external and more or less accidental factors are more important than TMC's clumsy and hugely expensive misadventures in advertising, which would have your believe that the Lexus is some sort of upgraded hip hop machine, driven by people whose first name is 'Lil. Lil Dicky. Lil Asshole. Lil Pimp. Yes, the "L" also stands for "Lil.
Joking aside and going back to basics, any brand is established through public perception of value. Toyotas (and therefore Lexuses) are considered solid, reliable, and technologically up to date. Lexus is a luxury car, without the prestige of its European competitors and more affordable.
OK. So "brand" is about perception. Where do people see TMC products most often: taxis. Toyota makes taxis. All around the world you see Toyota taxis. They are the symbol of reliability. Hybrids: Since 2000 TMC hybrids dominated the market -- the first commercially successful dual gasoline / electrics . Reliability plus technology. TMC also makes a lot of practical vehicles-- which terrorist groups like ISIS simply love. Badass vehicles with machine guns mounted in the back churning up the desert. Who needs a Hummer? Reliability. Technology,. Practicality. Gratuitous violence.
The TV commercials are just frosting on the cake.
When Toyoda Akio took over TMC, he was just another salary man. But he wanted to be Steve Jobs. He was humiliated badly by the Toyota accelerator scandal which killed numerous people in the US, and cost over a billion dollars to fix. It wasn't so much the scandal I think as Toyoda's appearance before a congressional committee in which he looked like he was -- a semi coherent Japanese salary man executive strangled by a white collar and tie.
So Akio set reinventing his own image -- and that of his products. TMC products would be fun -- but, on the upper end, classy. HE would be "fun" and classy, too.Younger, more energetic, trendy. Japanese hipsterism.
That brings us to TV commercials and movie product placement which are designed to provide a narrative. For Steven Jobs "brand" was about a compelling "story" to which ordinary people could relate. A story that they wanted to play a role in. If there was anything that Jobs understood, it was narcissism. Of course, for Apple he, Jobs was the story! Lean, simple, minimalist, impactful... Then he died.
Akio wanted to be the story too.
Movie and TV product placement can be very effective in this respect.
Audi's sponsorship of both the movie and TV versions of the Transporter is a case in point. Jason Stratham is a classy hero -- with high standards and his own set of rules. He lives a classy life in a classy place. And he saves lives. His main tool is his Audi. Itg's a muscular car; Stratham is a muscular man. Stratum beatgs up baddies, not just through strength but creatively. He's smart. The Audi beats out Benzes and Porsches and Ferraris and BMWs the same way. It's a smart car for smart driver.
When was the last time you saw an Audi taxi?
Now. turn to Toyota and Lexus.
“Two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all,” Killmonger scolds the Wakandan court. “Where was Wakanda?”
Today, Akio Toyoda drives fast cars on racing circuits as Toyota's self proclaimed Master Driver and Branding Officer.
He touts Takumi craftsmanship in his vehicles, Sorry, Lexus' are not hand built -- they are built by robots -- unlike, say Ferraris. So, we are believe that Toyota robots have an Edo period sensibility. . He's lost some weight, improved his English and appears in New York with celebrities, wearing chic clothes Trendy, trendy, trendy....
Unfortunately, Akio's ideas of "trends" seem to be influenced by his time at Bates College as an Honoury White Boy. Now, he is really just a super-rich hipster, with a typically shallow understanding of American culture.
Which is why he has put money into blaxploitation, with product placement of Lexus in movies like Black Panther, SuperFly 2018, and the use of black rappers in TV commercials. Yes, hip hop was originally a "black" genre. And many of the leading rappers still are black. But rap has expanded. There's white rap and Chinese rap and Japanese rap and Arabic rap. Rap is popular because arguably it is the music of the poor and the suppressed; inherently contrarian, if not revolutionary . With the growth of inequality -- the young are the Precariat. Most will never been able to afford a Lexus, if they can afford a car at all. Rap is a vehicle for frustration and anger, motherfucker. Is Lexus?
Still TMC thinks hip hop is black, as maybe it was in Akio's day.
So it has put money into blaxploitation. But what is the story TMC expects people to "buy into"?
Blaxploitation plays with white stereotypes of black males as: primal, primitive, violent, sexual, criminal. Black females are sex objects. How many Lexuses in maximum security prisons?
Movies like Black Panther and especially SuperFly feature mostly black actors and maybe some black writers and others -- but they are really for affluent white people for whom black is 21st Century Id.
Take Black Panther. A small tribe in Africa is gifted when a meteorite lands in their territory. the meteorite is composed of a magic substance, vibranium, that transforms their culture technologically -- and -- magically. They become impossibly rich, impossibly advanced. but "they still be black, motherfuckers." Not that any Wakanda would say, "mothefucker". The hero of the movie, T'Challa naturally drives a Lexus in the US. He also speaks "white". His Nemesis is known as Killmonger:
“Two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all,” Killmonger scolds the Wakandan court. “Where was Wakanda?”
Killmonger represents the white stereotype of the Black Panther ideology of the 70s This is the stereotype promoted by racists in government - violent black terrorists who wanted to kill all white people . In reality the Black Panthers were Marxist activists who sought to install pride in their communities and a measure of autonomy and were willing to work with white activists and other minorities. Here's their manifesto....
The FBI and the government's COUNTINTELPRo, worked to destroy the Black Panthers by infiltrating them discrediting them, framing leaders and murdering others. It worked.
The movie continues this work. We have the NeoLiberal T'Challa whose single white friend is a CIA officer -- and Killmonger -- who is a murderous savage. Note the word "savage". As in MauMau.
Even so, the movie works -- if you ignore the inverted racism, implying that no African culture could attain "civilization" without cosmic intervention, from Outer Space. It is mostly violence and sexy (black & brown) women. The heroes have loads to tech' stuff , not to mention money -- not to mention the Lexus.
The Wakandans are presented as Super Zulus with Amazon Warriors with big tits and prominent nipples and energy weapons. Totally subservient to Big Daddy, of course.
But Africa was home to many civilizations. Egypt and Carthage come to mind -- but they are usually discounted as "Middle Eastern", brown rather than black.
In addition however you had the 'black" civilizations of Punt,
Songahi, Kush, Nok, Malli, Ghana, Benin, and
Axum.
But are the values that attach to Lexus?. Certainly not the values of any African culture or civilization. But the values that white people attribute to black African Americans --violence, patriarchal sexuality, greed, and crime.
Note#1 to TMC: a black person driving a Lexus luxury car will likely get him pulled over by the cops and he will lose the car to "asset forfeiture".
Note #2: the younger generation is not one thing -- it is diverse according to social class and culture.
Note #2: Hip hop is hugely popular -- but it is still class sensitive. Hip hop is mostly popular among young people who will NEVER be able to afford a Lexus.
Note #3 Hip hop is no longer just a "black" thing-- like jazz it has become a universal music form. Eminem is white! Hip hop appeals most of all to the young, the poor, the angry and the disadvantaged. It is inherently revolutionary. Not the kind of stuff Lexus owners play on their onboard audio.
Let's turn to SuperFly. The Hero -- a drug pusher and distributor -- and drives a Lexus sport car. The movie is all about drugs, murder, gangs and sex. Lexus would come across as a PimpMobile, except that the hero is not a pimp. "Anyway, if you want a Lexus be prepared to sell drugs, kill, steal, lie -- and leave the city littered with bodies, male and female. The Lexus Way?
You get the idea. Jason Stratham has class. He tries not to kill anyone. He's upright, truthful...somehow virtuous -- the hero type. He saves people.
SuperFly (Priest) is not a hero. He is an opportunist only concerned with looking good, getting laid and getting rich.
Movies like these have as much to do with the Black community as Barack Obama did -- that is, nothing. They are purely exploitative.
It's white people pimping American blackness.
Of course, you might argue that I am being racist by suggesting that a car company should not use black culture to sell luxury products. But ....is Black Panther about black culture at all? Nope. Is SuperFly 2018 about black culture? Of course not. This is a white or maybe a Japanese idea of black culture.
In the case of product marketing, every product is also a brand. But marketing and advertising is only one factor in creating brand identity, which like human personality is the result of many factors -- not just our attempts to be seen a certain way.
The same applies to countries. Public perceptions of nation identity are determined by many, many factors, if only because societies and cultures are so much more complex than, say, running shoes or razors or cars. In point of fact, "nation branding" as it is carried out by governments fails almost 100 % of the time where the attempt is to establish a national identity analogous in to a human identity.
In the case of product branding, branding campaigns sometimes work; sometimes not-- but corporate advertising and marketing are not the only factors.
Let's take Toyota and Lexus as example. Toyotas and Lexuses are made by the same company -- TMC (Toyota Motor Corporation) and are both solid and successful brands.
But....if the Lexus brand just depended on advertising and product placement-- then Lexus would be the PimpMobile. It isn't, of course. But only because external and more or less accidental factors are more important than TMC's clumsy and hugely expensive misadventures in advertising, which would have your believe that the Lexus is some sort of upgraded hip hop machine, driven by people whose first name is 'Lil. Lil Dicky. Lil Asshole. Lil Pimp. Yes, the "L" also stands for "Lil.
Joking aside and going back to basics, any brand is established through public perception of value. Toyotas (and therefore Lexuses) are considered solid, reliable, and technologically up to date. Lexus is a luxury car, without the prestige of its European competitors and more affordable.
OK. So "brand" is about perception. Where do people see TMC products most often: taxis. Toyota makes taxis. All around the world you see Toyota taxis. They are the symbol of reliability. Hybrids: Since 2000 TMC hybrids dominated the market -- the first commercially successful dual gasoline / electrics . Reliability plus technology. TMC also makes a lot of practical vehicles-- which terrorist groups like ISIS simply love. Badass vehicles with machine guns mounted in the back churning up the desert. Who needs a Hummer? Reliability. Technology,. Practicality. Gratuitous violence.
The TV commercials are just frosting on the cake.
When Toyoda Akio took over TMC, he was just another salary man. But he wanted to be Steve Jobs. He was humiliated badly by the Toyota accelerator scandal which killed numerous people in the US, and cost over a billion dollars to fix. It wasn't so much the scandal I think as Toyoda's appearance before a congressional committee in which he looked like he was -- a semi coherent Japanese salary man executive strangled by a white collar and tie.
So Akio set reinventing his own image -- and that of his products. TMC products would be fun -- but, on the upper end, classy. HE would be "fun" and classy, too.Younger, more energetic, trendy. Japanese hipsterism.
That brings us to TV commercials and movie product placement which are designed to provide a narrative. For Steven Jobs "brand" was about a compelling "story" to which ordinary people could relate. A story that they wanted to play a role in. If there was anything that Jobs understood, it was narcissism. Of course, for Apple he, Jobs was the story! Lean, simple, minimalist, impactful... Then he died.
Akio wanted to be the story too.
Movie and TV product placement can be very effective in this respect.
Audi's sponsorship of both the movie and TV versions of the Transporter is a case in point. Jason Stratham is a classy hero -- with high standards and his own set of rules. He lives a classy life in a classy place. And he saves lives. His main tool is his Audi. Itg's a muscular car; Stratham is a muscular man. Stratum beatgs up baddies, not just through strength but creatively. He's smart. The Audi beats out Benzes and Porsches and Ferraris and BMWs the same way. It's a smart car for smart driver.
When was the last time you saw an Audi taxi?
Now. turn to Toyota and Lexus.
“Two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all,” Killmonger scolds the Wakandan court. “Where was Wakanda?”
Today, Akio Toyoda drives fast cars on racing circuits as Toyota's self proclaimed Master Driver and Branding Officer.
Unfortunately, Akio's ideas of "trends" seem to be influenced by his time at Bates College as an Honoury White Boy. Now, he is really just a super-rich hipster, with a typically shallow understanding of American culture.
Which is why he has put money into blaxploitation, with product placement of Lexus in movies like Black Panther, SuperFly 2018, and the use of black rappers in TV commercials. Yes, hip hop was originally a "black" genre. And many of the leading rappers still are black. But rap has expanded. There's white rap and Chinese rap and Japanese rap and Arabic rap. Rap is popular because arguably it is the music of the poor and the suppressed; inherently contrarian, if not revolutionary . With the growth of inequality -- the young are the Precariat. Most will never been able to afford a Lexus, if they can afford a car at all. Rap is a vehicle for frustration and anger, motherfucker. Is Lexus?
 |
| LC 500 $100,000 |
Still TMC thinks hip hop is black, as maybe it was in Akio's day.
So it has put money into blaxploitation. But what is the story TMC expects people to "buy into"?
Blaxploitation plays with white stereotypes of black males as: primal, primitive, violent, sexual, criminal. Black females are sex objects. How many Lexuses in maximum security prisons?
Movies like Black Panther and especially SuperFly feature mostly black actors and maybe some black writers and others -- but they are really for affluent white people for whom black is 21st Century Id.
Take Black Panther. A small tribe in Africa is gifted when a meteorite lands in their territory. the meteorite is composed of a magic substance, vibranium, that transforms their culture technologically -- and -- magically. They become impossibly rich, impossibly advanced. but "they still be black, motherfuckers." Not that any Wakanda would say, "mothefucker". The hero of the movie, T'Challa naturally drives a Lexus in the US. He also speaks "white". His Nemesis is known as Killmonger:
“Two billion people all over the world who look like us whose lives are much harder, and Wakanda has the tools to liberate them all,” Killmonger scolds the Wakandan court. “Where was Wakanda?”
Killmonger represents the white stereotype of the Black Panther ideology of the 70s This is the stereotype promoted by racists in government - violent black terrorists who wanted to kill all white people . In reality the Black Panthers were Marxist activists who sought to install pride in their communities and a measure of autonomy and were willing to work with white activists and other minorities. Here's their manifesto....
- We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
- We want full employment for our people.
- We want an end to the robbery by the Capitalists of our Black Community.
- We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
- We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.
- We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
- We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
- We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
- We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
- We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
The FBI and the government's COUNTINTELPRo, worked to destroy the Black Panthers by infiltrating them discrediting them, framing leaders and murdering others. It worked.
The movie continues this work. We have the NeoLiberal T'Challa whose single white friend is a CIA officer -- and Killmonger -- who is a murderous savage. Note the word "savage". As in MauMau.
Even so, the movie works -- if you ignore the inverted racism, implying that no African culture could attain "civilization" without cosmic intervention, from Outer Space. It is mostly violence and sexy (black & brown) women. The heroes have loads to tech' stuff , not to mention money -- not to mention the Lexus.
The Wakandans are presented as Super Zulus with Amazon Warriors with big tits and prominent nipples and energy weapons. Totally subservient to Big Daddy, of course.
 |
| Songhai Empire |
But Africa was home to many civilizations. Egypt and Carthage come to mind -- but they are usually discounted as "Middle Eastern", brown rather than black.
 |
| Mali Empire Central Africa |
In addition however you had the 'black" civilizations of Punt,
Songahi, Kush, Nok, Malli, Ghana, Benin, and
Axum.
 |
| Ancient Ethiopian Writing |
But are the values that attach to Lexus?. Certainly not the values of any African culture or civilization. But the values that white people attribute to black African Americans --violence, patriarchal sexuality, greed, and crime.
Note#1 to TMC: a black person driving a Lexus luxury car will likely get him pulled over by the cops and he will lose the car to "asset forfeiture".
Note #2: the younger generation is not one thing -- it is diverse according to social class and culture.
Note #2: Hip hop is hugely popular -- but it is still class sensitive. Hip hop is mostly popular among young people who will NEVER be able to afford a Lexus.
Note #3 Hip hop is no longer just a "black" thing-- like jazz it has become a universal music form. Eminem is white! Hip hop appeals most of all to the young, the poor, the angry and the disadvantaged. It is inherently revolutionary. Not the kind of stuff Lexus owners play on their onboard audio.
Let's turn to SuperFly. The Hero -- a drug pusher and distributor -- and drives a Lexus sport car. The movie is all about drugs, murder, gangs and sex. Lexus would come across as a PimpMobile, except that the hero is not a pimp. "Anyway, if you want a Lexus be prepared to sell drugs, kill, steal, lie -- and leave the city littered with bodies, male and female. The Lexus Way?
 |
| How to dress black |
You get the idea. Jason Stratham has class. He tries not to kill anyone. He's upright, truthful...somehow virtuous -- the hero type. He saves people.
SuperFly (Priest) is not a hero. He is an opportunist only concerned with looking good, getting laid and getting rich.
Movies like these have as much to do with the Black community as Barack Obama did -- that is, nothing. They are purely exploitative.
It's white people pimping American blackness.
Of course, you might argue that I am being racist by suggesting that a car company should not use black culture to sell luxury products. But ....is Black Panther about black culture at all? Nope. Is SuperFly 2018 about black culture? Of course not. This is a white or maybe a Japanese idea of black culture.
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