More About Black Culture in Commercials

One thing that I occasionally talk about in this blog is the way black culture is used in commercials. The newest culprit is a commercial for the Nissan Titan pickup truck. It features clips of the Titan doing various things and an unseen choir singing of the Titan’s awards in gospel style. I don’t think this commercial is bad, actually. It puts me in the mind of those classic LifeSavers commercials that featured Ladysmith Black Mambazo harmonizing about the delicious flavors (although that wasn’t gospel style). Who can forget “So full of...Life...Savers...Mmmmmmm”? There have been other interesting uses of gospel-style singing. I loved the Muses in Disney’s Hercules, which were sung and voiced by various choir/stage veterans. Moby has sampled his favorite choir (to good effect) on his last two albums Play and 18. OutKast also used gospel choirs to make great music on “Bombs Over Baghdad” from Stankonia and “Church” from the Speakerboxxx disc of Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. I guess it’s not so bad that the gospel choir is singing the praises of a truck. I’d be more concerned if it was a laxative: “Ohhh! If you’re all clogged up! Take Ex-Laxxxxxxxx!!!!!!”

Another commercial I also enjoy is the Verizon Wireless commercial with the guy who is the first of his college friends to get a job. My sister and I crack up at the black man in the commercial. The main guy of the commercial (who is white) is in a cab with a black man. His crazy college friends scream into the phone and we see the black man stare the main guy down as they bounce in the taxi. This is part of the long running tradition of the black man stare. It's been perfected by such great actors as Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and the king of the stare...Morgan Freeman. In fact, the stare itself is the point of a great American Express commercial starring Tim Duncan. He is in a car dealership looking to buy a car. Duncan just stares at the salesman as he keeps rattling off prices and options so that he can sell Tim the car. Duncan stares all the way until the man offers a great deal. He pulls out his American Express card and smiles while the salesman can't see before the stone-cold face returns. At the end of the commercial, he begins to stare down a cop who accused him of speeding. The cop starts to give in. These commercials illustrate the two different versions of the stare. The Verizon commericial has the stare being used as a way to say "What the hell is wrong with you?" without words. The American Express commercial presents the classic intimidation stare. Either way, in many a commercial and a movie, staring and black people mix.

Finally, Justin Timberlake makes a brief appearance in the new McDonald's commercial. What's up with this? Well, the commercial has Justin as a taxi driver whose car is bouncing to the beat of the music in the background. His passenger is what could be a black man. Oh, did I mention that both of them look high as hell?