Alicia Keys + Proactiv

Just wanted to provide a screen shot of the Proactiv commercial Alicia Keys featured in.

Positive, Personal, Powerful, Proactiv

Alicia Keys ProActiv

- Watch more Music Videos at Vodpod.

This ad featuring Alicia Keys is effective and positive.  They are also a definite improvement over earlier portrayals of members of minority groups, especially the protrayals of Black women.  Stylish, attractive and bright, Alicia Keys charms audiences with her looks and personality which shines through her dialogue in the commercial.  Speaking eloquently and smiling throughout the commercial, Alicia Keys is perceived as sincere, intelligent and happy.  In contrast to ads published during the pre-civil rights era, Alicia Keys is not man-made, fabricated and her features are not hyperbolized.

Comparing Alicia Keys' ad to Aunt Jemima's, it is evident which ad is more attractive and favorable.  Alicia Keys is presented here attractive and stylish with light makeup.  Aunt Jemima is in a serving uniform without makeup and is certainly unattractive.  Aunt Jemima's ad is poorly lit, and her gender is questionable.  The dialogue in Aunt Jemima's ad screams unintelligent and illiterate.  When choosing products to purchase consumers heed a product's company's reliability.  Consumers are more likely to trust a physically pleasing and eloquent speaker as opposed to an unattractive and illiterate speaker.  Alicia's ad connects to many different ages, genders, and races.  Although Aunt Jemima connects to many different types of people, it is still shunned by many.  Alicia Keys is represented as someone you can trust and want to be like, thus making her ad effective. 

Alicia Keys Keeps Children Alife, 1st Blog Assignment

Hailing from the Hell's Kitchen are of Manhattan, New York, Alicia Keys charms America's hearts with her beauty and talent.  Crooning beautifly over a piano which she simply masters, Keys rose to stardom, snagging tons of Grammy, MTV and BET Music Awards.  Singer, actress, Co-founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive, newlywed and tobe mother, Alicia Keys is the modern day Wonder Woman! 

However, there is one piece of information I forgot to include...She used to have a face full of acne!  Now before you deem me a cruel person, hear me out.  Her face full of acne allowed her to become Proactiv's forefront woman. 

Because of her activism in AIDS Research, the entertainment business and in motion picture, I selected Alicia Keys as my topic of discussion for my upcoming essay.  She is definitely a testimony to the argument that advertisers have definitely come a long way in portraying members of underrepresented, minority groups.  Her intelligence, charisma, style, talent and looks allow her to represent a positive image of strong, educated Black women.  The ads she is displayed in are definitely a great contrast to the types of ads we have seen of Black women in the past (e.g. Aunt Jemima). 

Here is a video of one of her most popular songs.

1st (Test) Blog Post: Racial Propaganda

FRITO BANDITO

"He loves CRONCHY Fritos corn chips so much he'll stop at nothing to get yours.  What's more, he's cunning, clever-- and sneaky!

He's a theiving, gun toting, Sobrero wearing, mustache sporting man hailing from South of the Border whom Frito Lay advitisers believed would persuade consumers that Frito Lay chip brands were ideal for them.  Attacking the Mexican race, this cartoon form looks very similar to the stereotyped image of Mexicans. 

We've seen a vast array of racial propaganda like Frito Bandito: large nosed Jews during the Holocaust, servicing Black grandmothers on syrup bottles, and happy "Uncle Tom's" serving white consumers.

Here's a video of one of Frito Bandito's commercials which, yes, did air on television at one point in time.

I wanted to post an entry about this just to share what I have been looking into lately.  I wonder if years from now we will look at the advertisements we so commonly know today and deem them as attacks to certain races.