First of all I apologize for my tardiness in this post. As we just received our group lists today I hope I didn't affect anyone's efforts to respond to my post.

Nakamura's article titled "where do you want to go today?" discusses the irony of corporations using ethnic groups in advertising to make the claim that their products and services breakdown the barriers of race and gender. The irony is found in the necessity of painting these personas in their advertising as characteristically "other" whilst claiming that a particular commodity reduces us to "just minds".

While I can accept that there is a certain aura of deceit and mis-characterization taking place in these advertisements I still find myself in more appreciation of them than discontent. It reminds me of the Kaiser-Permanente paradox. That being that based on their commercials you would think they were a very progressive, care oriented HMO. However, as revealed in the tapes that Michael Moore popularized in Sicko their whole model is based on a profit vs. care structure and you can guess who wins....profit. (click here for transcript) The point I'm making is that even though these tapes demonstrate some less than angelic beginnings for the HMO, at least now their commercials are encouraging people to take a preventative approach to their health. Regardless of the fact that Kaiser-Permanente benefits from this scenario I support it, it's advertising that doesn't make me sick to my stomach and I appreciate it.

So am I saying that the only merit found in the advertising discussed by Nakamura is that it doesn't suck? NO, although that is a bonus. I think that many of these companies really would like to see an utopic society in which racial, ethnic and gender barriers dissolve. Just because they profit from it doesn't mean they don't support it.

What do you think?

Here's a Kaiser-Permanente commercial to compare the above link to: