1. The use of racism in the
media and in advertising.
Intentional or
not?
Written and presented by
Rachel Harrison
2. Racism: examples used in
advertising and the media.
My four examples:
1. Interview between Paul
Henry and John Key,
2. Intel Advertisement,
3. Ice Cream Advertisement,
4. Toothpaste commercial.
3. What is racism?
• “a social system of
domination, that is, of a
specific kind of power of one
group over another group ”
(Van
Dijk, 2005, pp. 1-
2)
5. First example: Interview with Paul
Henry
• Paul Henry (host of TVNZ
Breakfast show)in 2010, made
racist remarks against the current
Governor-General, Sir Anand
Satyanand who is of Fiji-Indian
descent.
• In an interview with Prime Minister
John Key, Henry asked who would
be selected as the new Governor-
General and whether they will look
and sound more like a New
Zealander.
• Is he "even a New Zealander".
7. Example two: Advertisement for
Intel
• Intel launched a national
campaign in 2007.
• The advertisement
consisted of a white
manager (master?) who
stands over six African
American athletes who
bow in perfect symmetry
before him.
9. Example three: Advertisement for
Ice Cream
• My third example is an
advertisement for a new ice
cream flavour.
• Made to advertise that they
have come up with a new ice
cream flavor that has
chocolate inside the vanilla,
represented by Obama living
inside the White House.
10. Example four:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRboyW0BruY
11. Example four: Commerical for
toothpaste.
• Advertisement suggesting
that people are hesitant
about darker
colours, whether it is skin
colour or toothpaste.
• Organization suggests that
consumers will also be
hesitant about using brown
coloured toothpaste.
12. Linguistic elements
1st example:
• “... are we going to go for someone who
is more like a New Zealander this time?”
• a) more- as if to say that someone can
look more New Zealand than the
Governor General.
• b) this time- implies that the Governor
General does not look or sound like a
New Zealander.
• Shows syntactic choice
13. Linguistic elements
2nd example:
• Ambiguity/ pun:
a) “multiply performance”-
six male sprinters.
b) “maximize power”- white
man standing above men
looking powerful with his
arms crossed as they bow
down.
14. Linguistic elements
3rd example-
• Mitigation used to ease any
idea of racism.
• Made humorous by making
it a cartoon and giving
Obama a ridiculously huge
smile and surrounding him
with rainbows and stars.
15. Linguistic elements
4th example-
• The use of over-lexicalization
• They have used the word
“appearance” because it is
inappropriate to say that
“’Black’ can be deceiving”
• Even though it make look
‘different’ or you may be
hesitant about trying it, it
could in fact be nice
16. Interrelationship between
language, discourse and power.
• Implies that Caucasian or white
people hold more power over
non-Caucasian people.
• relates to the idea of language
discourse and power, because it
has been the language by Paul
Henry that has made racist
remarks and it is the discourse
of that language that has
implied the remaining racism in
the advertising.
17. For markers only:
• Gillian, I hope that you can see the
difference between my assignments three
and five and hopefully you can see the
improvements I have made.
Thank you
Rachel Harrison