Is it just me?
June 5, 2018 12:26 PM Subscribe
I've been seeing this J-B Weld ad on TV recently, and every time, it bothers me. It feels like there's a really Trumpish racist message to it. Am I reading too much into it?
You may be reading too much into it. For some background on these ads (and to see all the different ones in the series), here's an article in AdWeek.
The actor himself, Nick Offerman, seems like he would be pretty unlikely to participate in Trumpish racist messaging. From an interview with him shortly before the 2016 election:
The actor himself, Nick Offerman, seems like he would be pretty unlikely to participate in Trumpish racist messaging. From an interview with him shortly before the 2016 election:
I think unfortunately, for the democratic process, there's no logical or sane or moral choice to be made other than voting for Hillary Clinton. But I also think that if she were not a woman, we would not be in this boat. I think the election would be over already. And that's another sad thing, that a large reason there's so much anger and mistrust of her is because people are very reluctant to see the patriarchy topple. I am incredibly excited that the glass ceiling will be shattered. I mean, we've had our first black president and we'll probably have our first woman president. And of course we're going to go kicking and screaming as a nation into that, we would have it no other way. At the end of the day, we're all a bunch of big babies. But what an exciting accomplishment.posted by erst at 12:39 PM on June 5, 2018 [12 favorites]
Where's the problem?
One potential problem is white savior/'Asian dudes can't fix things' vibe.
OP, I get it, I don't think you're crazy. I also don't think this is especially egregious for the world of advertising. I'd say it's about as racist as those yogurt commercial are misandrist: a little bit, some people probably don't notice or agree that it's there, but it's kinda really there when you look closely and know what to look for.
I agree Offerman is no Trumpist, and I don't see any special Trump connection, just some clumsy casting that (hopefully) accidentally came off a bit racist on it's quest to cash in on the lucrative New Weird™ ads, in the vein of Slim Jim, Old Spice, Jack in the Box, etc.
I think this may just be collateral snafu from trying too hard to cast that group as diverse: they have a good mix of ethnicities, genders and ages.
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:43 PM on June 5, 2018 [13 favorites]
One potential problem is white savior/'Asian dudes can't fix things' vibe.
OP, I get it, I don't think you're crazy. I also don't think this is especially egregious for the world of advertising. I'd say it's about as racist as those yogurt commercial are misandrist: a little bit, some people probably don't notice or agree that it's there, but it's kinda really there when you look closely and know what to look for.
I agree Offerman is no Trumpist, and I don't see any special Trump connection, just some clumsy casting that (hopefully) accidentally came off a bit racist on it's quest to cash in on the lucrative New Weird™ ads, in the vein of Slim Jim, Old Spice, Jack in the Box, etc.
I think this may just be collateral snafu from trying too hard to cast that group as diverse: they have a good mix of ethnicities, genders and ages.
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:43 PM on June 5, 2018 [13 favorites]
I don't know man, they make me uncomfortable too, for the same reason. Why is the target of his stare a non-white person in the other commercial too? That's... a weird coincidence.
posted by saladin at 12:44 PM on June 5, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by saladin at 12:44 PM on June 5, 2018 [4 favorites]
I think it has a weird vibe, like Offerman's character is kinda unnecessarily dickish and the casting is tone-deaf, but I want to give this the benefit of the doubt because JB weld holds together a lot in my life.
posted by dudemanlives at 12:48 PM on June 5, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by dudemanlives at 12:48 PM on June 5, 2018 [5 favorites]
I was a little jarring. If you're going to err, erring away from racism seems wise. Why not call or write the company, ask them to consider the ad, and make their next ads a bit more diverse? If nothing else, diversity in advertising means more people in protected-because-of-discrimination categories get hired.
posted by theora55 at 12:52 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 12:52 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think there's an element of a problem in this, but it basically boils down to the problem being that the bearded white dude is the famous one, and that diverse casting is such a problem generally that they are probably trying, here, to actually do a good thing. But because the famous guy gets cast into the judgmental role, the intentionally-diverse casting of people whose names we don't know is going to put those people into the lower-status position. So I think they're trying to do a good thing, but the end result is kind of weirdly uncomfortable. But kind of similar to that thing in a lot of movies and TV shows where the lead role is a white guy and they've made an effort to be inclusive, but that just results in the white guy telling the POC on his team what to do?
More diverse casting is good but it'll be better when that diversity extends more often to the big names. I was just thinking about this this weekend in relation to Inception, which okay yes I only just saw for the first time, where technically Ken Watanabe's is the more powerful person but because he's not as major a character it still winds up with DiCaprio's character taking the leadership role and I think that's kind of a thing in a lot of movies/TV, much less ads. I'm kind of torn in both cases about what I feel should have been cast differently to fix it, though. I will say, at least in this case, I think part of the setup is that you're supposed to realize you don't HAVE to be Whiteguy McBeardy to fix stuff. The uncomfortable bit seems to be more a situation created by the prevailing racism in media.
posted by Sequence at 1:01 PM on June 5, 2018 [20 favorites]
More diverse casting is good but it'll be better when that diversity extends more often to the big names. I was just thinking about this this weekend in relation to Inception, which okay yes I only just saw for the first time, where technically Ken Watanabe's is the more powerful person but because he's not as major a character it still winds up with DiCaprio's character taking the leadership role and I think that's kind of a thing in a lot of movies/TV, much less ads. I'm kind of torn in both cases about what I feel should have been cast differently to fix it, though. I will say, at least in this case, I think part of the setup is that you're supposed to realize you don't HAVE to be Whiteguy McBeardy to fix stuff. The uncomfortable bit seems to be more a situation created by the prevailing racism in media.
posted by Sequence at 1:01 PM on June 5, 2018 [20 favorites]
I agree these commercials come off as insensitive. I think that part of the casting comes from the fact that Offerman is known as a woodworker as well as an actor, so the initial casting probably came from the fact that he would be someone who can fix things, so would be a good fit for JB Weld. Maybe just not the best person for this particular campaign.
posted by Quonab at 1:27 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by Quonab at 1:27 PM on June 5, 2018
Here's another one. Here the reprimandees are an interracial couple.
posted by Don Pepino at 1:44 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 1:44 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's not just you, but I think it's because the ad is poorly edited. Based on the other ads, I think the story is supposed to be that there's a weirdo going around fixing items from peoples' trash and then attempting to taunt them but just being weird and creepy. I would guess that's supposed to be the Asian dude's back yard he and his creepy friends are partying in. But yeah, the subtext is bad.
posted by zennie at 1:53 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by zennie at 1:53 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
Oh, gross. Yes, those are creepy and offensive. Offerman's fairly well-known (well, to me at least) to be a feminist Left-leaning dude, and this is likely playing off his Ron Swanson fix-everything/handman character. Another vote for the offensive and threatening tone was not intentional (but is very much present).
posted by Ink-stained wretch at 2:00 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ink-stained wretch at 2:00 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
I don't think it's just an unfortunate side-effect of "diverse casting" because all his friends with him seem to be white. And in the other two adds I saw in youtube, the "judged" people do seem to be intentionally diverse. I don't know.The whole tone is odd, because he comes across as creepy and judgemental rather than sympathetic. I suspect there's not some intentional racist thing going on though, I think it's just poorly done and doesn't hit whatever mark it was aiming for.
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:03 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:03 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't think it's just an unfortunate side-effect of "diverse casting" because all his friends with him seem to be white.
The woman sitting in front in the ad linked in the original question, among his friends, is black.
posted by Sequence at 2:17 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
The woman sitting in front in the ad linked in the original question, among his friends, is black.
posted by Sequence at 2:17 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
The woman sitting in front in the ad linked in the original question, among his friends, is black.
Oh I read that as just her being in shadow. If she is, that does make it feel less odd to me. Could just be the sucky colours on my screen!
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:21 PM on June 5, 2018
Oh I read that as just her being in shadow. If she is, that does make it feel less odd to me. Could just be the sucky colours on my screen!
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:21 PM on June 5, 2018
Totally racist.
Notice that the Asian guy has kind of an amorphous body shape, too -- and no beard, of course.
And what kind of joke ends with "that's[?] a pork chop!", considering that Muslims and Jews often avoid pork.
posted by jamjam at 2:28 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
Notice that the Asian guy has kind of an amorphous body shape, too -- and no beard, of course.
And what kind of joke ends with "that's[?] a pork chop!", considering that Muslims and Jews often avoid pork.
posted by jamjam at 2:28 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
These are weird as hell. What I do not understand is the air of menace. The mother and child huddled behind the curtain. The silent crowd staring back at patio guy. What the hell, for real. I feel like I have to be missing something.
Minutiae:
Note that he fixes not only the chair but also the grill in the patio one. And I think he's talking to the friends about the guy when he says "...so I said, 'these are pork chops'" and "so he's got one of these digital thermometers." Which means the suggested backstory is... what? Maybe: the guy came out and said "What the hell are you doing on my patio?" and Nick Offerman said, "Grilling on this perfectly good grill you threw away and sitting in this perfectly good chair you threw away," and the guy says "WHAT?" and Nick Offerman says, "Heh! These are pork chops!"
In the rockingchair one, he's reading Moby Dick, but not the Rockwell Kent one. They should've found that one; would've been better. But Moby Dick is the perfect choice. For one thing, it's old. For another, it says: here's the kind of thing you unimaginative slobs would be doing with your time if you had respect for things of value, like me! Rocking in this perfectly good chair under this perfectly good lamp reading THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN
posted by Don Pepino at 2:32 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
Minutiae:
Note that he fixes not only the chair but also the grill in the patio one. And I think he's talking to the friends about the guy when he says "...so I said, 'these are pork chops'" and "so he's got one of these digital thermometers." Which means the suggested backstory is... what? Maybe: the guy came out and said "What the hell are you doing on my patio?" and Nick Offerman said, "Grilling on this perfectly good grill you threw away and sitting in this perfectly good chair you threw away," and the guy says "WHAT?" and Nick Offerman says, "Heh! These are pork chops!"
In the rockingchair one, he's reading Moby Dick, but not the Rockwell Kent one. They should've found that one; would've been better. But Moby Dick is the perfect choice. For one thing, it's old. For another, it says: here's the kind of thing you unimaginative slobs would be doing with your time if you had respect for things of value, like me! Rocking in this perfectly good chair under this perfectly good lamp reading THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN
posted by Don Pepino at 2:32 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think you are looking too hard for racism. Take a step back and examine your position. It is way more likely this is not racist than a super subtly done racist campaign, with a diverse cast.
I don't personally know of a stereo type that involves Asian men throwing away broken chairs. It is more likely this is about a man throwing away a broken chair, who happens to be Asian. This is what winning at diversity looks like.
posted by Oceanic Trench at 2:35 PM on June 5, 2018 [16 favorites]
I don't personally know of a stereo type that involves Asian men throwing away broken chairs. It is more likely this is about a man throwing away a broken chair, who happens to be Asian. This is what winning at diversity looks like.
posted by Oceanic Trench at 2:35 PM on June 5, 2018 [16 favorites]
You're reading too much into it. Weird guy fixes discarded things. It's weird, it's not racist.
posted by so fucking future at 2:35 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by so fucking future at 2:35 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
The friends aren’t all white, and yes, they are all sitting on the Asian man’s driveway. The couple in the rocking chair ad are a multi-cultural couple.
He’s reading Moby-Dick because it’s an easy reference for “serious literature” and is about an obsessed man. Hmmm.
If the supporting cast were all Caucasian, this would be an FFP.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:58 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
He’s reading Moby-Dick because it’s an easy reference for “serious literature” and is about an obsessed man. Hmmm.
If the supporting cast were all Caucasian, this would be an FFP.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:58 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
Here’s my immediate reaction. Never saw one of these before. I feel like Offerman is supposed to be the weirdo, and we sympathize with the normal homeowner and his normal reaction (he rolls his eyes, it’s good comedic timing.)
Offerman is the fixit guy/weirdo because he is known for that irl. The “targets” are normal people, diverse so as to embrace diverse normal people.
However, I’m not going to tell you not to see what you see or feel how you feel about it. It’s true that East Asian men are under- and mis- represented in media.
posted by kapers at 3:23 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
Offerman is the fixit guy/weirdo because he is known for that irl. The “targets” are normal people, diverse so as to embrace diverse normal people.
However, I’m not going to tell you not to see what you see or feel how you feel about it. It’s true that East Asian men are under- and mis- represented in media.
posted by kapers at 3:23 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
You're reading too much into it. Weird guy fixes discarded things. It's weird, it's not racist.
Absolutely agree. Once you have Offerman in one role, there are only so many other roles available to cast. If you want to be inclusive, while also not changing your 'spokesman', then the foil to the amusing/weird/judgy 'fixing broken things' guy is more likely to be non-white. Otherwise everyone is white and I think that's what they were trying to avoid by being diverse - they were just limited with what characters could *be* diverse.
The ad the OP has brought up is the most ambiguous one, and I can see how that would raise an issue, because only with the other ads for context can you see the judge-iness was purely about the wastefulness of throwing perfectly good, fixable, stuff away. With that one ad in isolation it does jar a little.
posted by Brockles at 3:26 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
Absolutely agree. Once you have Offerman in one role, there are only so many other roles available to cast. If you want to be inclusive, while also not changing your 'spokesman', then the foil to the amusing/weird/judgy 'fixing broken things' guy is more likely to be non-white. Otherwise everyone is white and I think that's what they were trying to avoid by being diverse - they were just limited with what characters could *be* diverse.
The ad the OP has brought up is the most ambiguous one, and I can see how that would raise an issue, because only with the other ads for context can you see the judge-iness was purely about the wastefulness of throwing perfectly good, fixable, stuff away. With that one ad in isolation it does jar a little.
posted by Brockles at 3:26 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I don't know if I'd call it Trumpish, but yeah, the ad you linked strikes me as uncomfortable and hostile and not funny. Unlike the other ads, the setting they chose (paved alley?) makes it less clear what's going on. Also unlike the rocking chair or scooter ads, the BBQ activity that results from the repair is not obviously ridiculous, so it just looks like there's a party that the Asian guy is excluded from and then everyone exchanges hostile deadpan stares.
I've never seen Parks and Rec and have only a passing familiarity with Nick Offerman. Maybe the ad campaign expects people to be familiar with his character to get the joke.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
I've never seen Parks and Rec and have only a passing familiarity with Nick Offerman. Maybe the ad campaign expects people to be familiar with his character to get the joke.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2018 [3 favorites]
People are throwing out broken shit. Dude fixes broken shit. Dude taunts them by enjoying these items, items they could have enjoyed had they fixed their broken shit. Then they literally admonish you to "Don't toss not. J-B Weld it." The implication is that if you do, someone make take something you once loved and make it into something lovable again, even if only out of spite.
I don't think there's much else to these commercials. They aren't high art.
My take is that we could probably do with more commercials like this. The idea that a white dude would like in a neighborhood with an Asian, a mixed race couple, and a black woman and her kid, doesn't exactly strike me as being racist. Perhaps if this was the sort of normalization the US was undergoing, we'd be a bit better off.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:21 PM on June 5, 2018 [6 favorites]
I don't think there's much else to these commercials. They aren't high art.
My take is that we could probably do with more commercials like this. The idea that a white dude would like in a neighborhood with an Asian, a mixed race couple, and a black woman and her kid, doesn't exactly strike me as being racist. Perhaps if this was the sort of normalization the US was undergoing, we'd be a bit better off.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:21 PM on June 5, 2018 [6 favorites]
Two readings:
- Angry redneck is stigginit to liberals and elites and brown people who ridicule him (not to mention call the local bylaw officers on him on a regular basis) for his redneck habit of fixing things. He's embracing the weirdness that they ridicule him for. Brown neighbours probably got their high-paying job (how else can they afford to throw away all that stuff?) through some affirmative action program, and that's why he doesn't invite them to the barbeque.
- Angry environmentalist is stigginit to wasteful Republican neighbours who ridicule him (not to mention call the local bylaw officers on him on a regular basis) for his environmentally friendly habit of fixing things. He's embracing the weirdness that they ridicule him for. Neighbours are probably deep in debt because they can't stand having anything that doesn't look brand-new. Whenever they see him, they mutter that they "didn't think I moved to that kind of neighbourhood", and that's why he doesn't invite them to the barbeque.
posted by clawsoon at 4:33 PM on June 5, 2018
- Angry redneck is stigginit to liberals and elites and brown people who ridicule him (not to mention call the local bylaw officers on him on a regular basis) for his redneck habit of fixing things. He's embracing the weirdness that they ridicule him for. Brown neighbours probably got their high-paying job (how else can they afford to throw away all that stuff?) through some affirmative action program, and that's why he doesn't invite them to the barbeque.
- Angry environmentalist is stigginit to wasteful Republican neighbours who ridicule him (not to mention call the local bylaw officers on him on a regular basis) for his environmentally friendly habit of fixing things. He's embracing the weirdness that they ridicule him for. Neighbours are probably deep in debt because they can't stand having anything that doesn't look brand-new. Whenever they see him, they mutter that they "didn't think I moved to that kind of neighbourhood", and that's why he doesn't invite them to the barbeque.
posted by clawsoon at 4:33 PM on June 5, 2018
I think it's worth noting that having racist intent and having a racist effect are different things. And I think that's confusing some of the replies. It's entirely possible to have racist (images, policies, songs, laws) without any conscious intent on behalf of the makers.
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:34 PM on June 5, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 4:34 PM on June 5, 2018 [7 favorites]
Response by poster: With that one ad in isolation it does jar a little.
That's the only one I've seen, and I've never seen anything else with Mr. Fixit in it, so I didn't have a context. What really struck me was the overt hostility at the end. It really looks like the group is having a party in the Asian guy's driveway. When he appears in the door, they all stop talking and stare at him until he retreats out of sight. They could have invited him to join them, or at least made some kind of friendly gesture, but they didn't.
I didn't catch the fact that there was a Black person in the group until I watched it on YouTube. That escaped me all the times I saw it on TV.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:16 PM on June 5, 2018
That's the only one I've seen, and I've never seen anything else with Mr. Fixit in it, so I didn't have a context. What really struck me was the overt hostility at the end. It really looks like the group is having a party in the Asian guy's driveway. When he appears in the door, they all stop talking and stare at him until he retreats out of sight. They could have invited him to join them, or at least made some kind of friendly gesture, but they didn't.
I didn't catch the fact that there was a Black person in the group until I watched it on YouTube. That escaped me all the times I saw it on TV.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:16 PM on June 5, 2018
Yes, you are reading too much into it.
You may be reading too much into it.
I think you are looking too hard for racism
You're reading too much into it.
Gonna bet a hundred bucks that everyone saying "Oh, you're reading too much into this" is white.
What are the chances that all three "antagonists" involve an asian man, a black woman and son, and an interracial white man, asian woman couple?
Nick Offerman's character is framed as the white dude that, while creepy, is understood and empathized with. It's clear that the ad wants you to empathize with his actions and to laugh/forgive them. The people of color are seen as alien/out of place/distant/out-of touch, even though they have completely reasonable responses to a creepy white dude actively provoking them and violating boundaries.
How is this not racist?
posted by suedehead at 5:30 PM on June 5, 2018 [5 favorites]
You may be reading too much into it.
I think you are looking too hard for racism
You're reading too much into it.
Gonna bet a hundred bucks that everyone saying "Oh, you're reading too much into this" is white.
What are the chances that all three "antagonists" involve an asian man, a black woman and son, and an interracial white man, asian woman couple?
Nick Offerman's character is framed as the white dude that, while creepy, is understood and empathized with. It's clear that the ad wants you to empathize with his actions and to laugh/forgive them. The people of color are seen as alien/out of place/distant/out-of touch, even though they have completely reasonable responses to a creepy white dude actively provoking them and violating boundaries.
How is this not racist?
posted by suedehead at 5:30 PM on June 5, 2018 [5 favorites]
I think the weird vibe is over the two characters disapproving of one another. JB Weld guy disapproves of people wasting things, neighbor disapproves of or is nonplussed by people repurposing his trash.
posted by zippy at 5:35 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by zippy at 5:35 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
I found these ads to be really creepy. Menacing white dude giving multiracial folk the stink-eye? Who thought this was a good idea?
posted by Toddles at 5:42 PM on June 5, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by Toddles at 5:42 PM on June 5, 2018 [6 favorites]
Also on a structural level: It looks like literally everyone who worked on this ad was white.
So a decision to cast an Asian man in antagonism with a white man and his white friends is a pretty deliberate decision on the part of an all-white team.
--
As an asian-american man, I've seen this kind of shit forever on TV growing up.
More than anything, I can't believe how difficult it can be to explain to (the vast majority of) white folks how:
1) how pervasive this shit is
2) how subtle but consistent it is
3) how the fact that white folks' privilege and the continuous framing of media narrative from white voices, white media, white power means that most white folks, even when they're looking for it, have difficulty identifying their privilege
4) how this means that the people who dismiss these racist moments are white, 99.99% of the time, and always dismiss it as "oh, well, you're probably reading too much into it."
posted by suedehead at 5:49 PM on June 5, 2018 [14 favorites]
So a decision to cast an Asian man in antagonism with a white man and his white friends is a pretty deliberate decision on the part of an all-white team.
--
As an asian-american man, I've seen this kind of shit forever on TV growing up.
More than anything, I can't believe how difficult it can be to explain to (the vast majority of) white folks how:
1) how pervasive this shit is
2) how subtle but consistent it is
3) how the fact that white folks' privilege and the continuous framing of media narrative from white voices, white media, white power means that most white folks, even when they're looking for it, have difficulty identifying their privilege
4) how this means that the people who dismiss these racist moments are white, 99.99% of the time, and always dismiss it as "oh, well, you're probably reading too much into it."
posted by suedehead at 5:49 PM on June 5, 2018 [14 favorites]
This made me very uncomfortable. I am white. I watched before reading the answers.
It wasn't clear to me from the establishing shot that Offerman's character was finding the chair in someone else's trash; I assumed from the next few shots that a new method had occurred to him to try to fix items that he had previously discarded. Likewise, I assumed when I saw the Asian American character open the slider that he was a neighbor and thus didn't get the intended comedy that Offerman's character was in his yard, and that made the nasty remark and the silence very sinister. I didn't gather the previous part of the conversation that others constructed either; with the immediate silence I presumed a problematic premise had been involved.
So I didn't understand what others seem to have gotten, but I'm also admittedly not great at interpreting visual storytelling, and I haven't watched any new television programs in a decade because of problems with extended watching of video caused by a disability.
posted by jocelmeow at 5:58 PM on June 5, 2018 [4 favorites]
It wasn't clear to me from the establishing shot that Offerman's character was finding the chair in someone else's trash; I assumed from the next few shots that a new method had occurred to him to try to fix items that he had previously discarded. Likewise, I assumed when I saw the Asian American character open the slider that he was a neighbor and thus didn't get the intended comedy that Offerman's character was in his yard, and that made the nasty remark and the silence very sinister. I didn't gather the previous part of the conversation that others constructed either; with the immediate silence I presumed a problematic premise had been involved.
So I didn't understand what others seem to have gotten, but I'm also admittedly not great at interpreting visual storytelling, and I haven't watched any new television programs in a decade because of problems with extended watching of video caused by a disability.
posted by jocelmeow at 5:58 PM on June 5, 2018 [4 favorites]
Not really racist (maybe?) but a bit uncomfortable.
I think it would have been easy to fix this in the two where Offerman fixes the scooter/gocart. After the "menacing" pass, show the kid on it smiling. But instead they double down on menacing. Not a great look in this age of rebounding white supremacy.
Probably could have done something similar for the bbq spot.
Offerman's character on P&R is an over-entitled man-child. People seem to like that but it's shitty in this environment and these ads seem to be built on the worst parts of that character which is a shame as Offerman the person seems okay.
posted by jclarkin at 6:16 PM on June 5, 2018
I think it would have been easy to fix this in the two where Offerman fixes the scooter/gocart. After the "menacing" pass, show the kid on it smiling. But instead they double down on menacing. Not a great look in this age of rebounding white supremacy.
Probably could have done something similar for the bbq spot.
Offerman's character on P&R is an over-entitled man-child. People seem to like that but it's shitty in this environment and these ads seem to be built on the worst parts of that character which is a shame as Offerman the person seems okay.
posted by jclarkin at 6:16 PM on June 5, 2018
White guy here, this struck me as mean-spirited, not funny, and totally racist. If this were documentary footage you could say maybe race had nothing to do with it, but the writing, casting and directing represent deliberate choices, so, I’m going with racist.
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:21 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by STFUDonnie at 6:21 PM on June 5, 2018
I cannot know whether these were constructed to have a racist message or not, but, a white guy menacing people of color outside their homes is an image evocative of racism for sure. So intentional or just careless it watches and feels weird and off-putting. The best case scenario for the folks that made it is that they are careless and insensitive, which you have to be better than when you are making something in a society permeated by white supremacy.
We live in a society where we are flooded up to our chests in racism. When you ask if something is wet a lot of people are going to say, "everything is wet, seems fine to me." We need to start being conscious of this stuff and hold things above the water line.
posted by Regal Ox Inigo at 6:31 PM on June 5, 2018 [6 favorites]
We live in a society where we are flooded up to our chests in racism. When you ask if something is wet a lot of people are going to say, "everything is wet, seems fine to me." We need to start being conscious of this stuff and hold things above the water line.
posted by Regal Ox Inigo at 6:31 PM on June 5, 2018 [6 favorites]
This made me think of the stereotype of Asians eating dogs and cats and Nick Offerman trying to backpedal from making a racist comment - "of COURSE it was a pork chop". Maybe if I hadn't seen it in the context of "this might be racist" I wouldn't have and maybe I'm overthinking it.
posted by bendy at 7:23 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by bendy at 7:23 PM on June 5, 2018
I watched all the videos linked here and the feeling I got from them was that they play into the idea of there being a worthy minority of people who are rough-and-ready, rugged, capable and self-sufficient, generally masculine and always more "real," proudly standing against a world of people who wouldn't last a day in the wild, who fall apart when faced with challenge and wouldn't know how to cope even if you handed them a good old-fashioned instruction manual, and who are effete, their status undeserved and based on fragile ground it's fun to kick out from under them. I got a "bleeding-heart liberal whose sense of responsibility is hypocritically skin-deep" versus "real American who actually fixes things" vibe, for what it's worth, and the casting in that context was problematic.
posted by trig at 8:35 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by trig at 8:35 PM on June 5, 2018
"It looks like literally everyone who worked on this ad was white." How does one determine the race of a person from just their name?
posted by cyclicker at 10:10 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by cyclicker at 10:10 PM on June 5, 2018
What are the chances that all three "antagonists" involve an asian man, a black woman and son, and an interracial white man, asian woman couple?
That pretty much looks like my neighborhood.
Also on a structural level: It looks like literally everyone who worked on this ad was white.
This is one of the most fucked-up comments I've ever read on this site. First, obviously the POC actors who appeared in the ads are not white, and their acting is certainly "work". Second, even if we're just going to do the judging-peoples-race-by-their-names thing, there are some apparently Latinx names on that list.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:36 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
That pretty much looks like my neighborhood.
Also on a structural level: It looks like literally everyone who worked on this ad was white.
This is one of the most fucked-up comments I've ever read on this site. First, obviously the POC actors who appeared in the ads are not white, and their acting is certainly "work". Second, even if we're just going to do the judging-peoples-race-by-their-names thing, there are some apparently Latinx names on that list.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:36 PM on June 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
I mean, digging even a little deeper, one of the key leadership positions in the ad is a man who apparently made his career working on media for a Latinx audience, and is Latinx himself. I can't speak for him, but I seriously doubt he identifies as "white" in the context we're discussing here.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:41 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by mr_roboto at 10:41 PM on June 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh, and since we're talking about the people making the ad, interesting side note. Biscuit is apparently the production company that reps Errol Morris for commercial jobs. Just a cool little detail.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:49 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by mr_roboto at 10:49 PM on June 5, 2018
OK; last comment. I was a little glib with "That pretty much looks like my neighborhood." The vast majority of the people who worked on this ad most likely live in Southern California, which is a majority-POC region. So take that into consideration when judging how they would "neutrally" cast a commercial.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:03 PM on June 5, 2018
posted by mr_roboto at 11:03 PM on June 5, 2018
Nick Offerman is playing his Ron Swanson character. Ron would be offended if you ever though he was politically correct. Those who 'get' Ron also get the bone dry humor in the ad.
posted by Homer42 at 12:14 AM on June 6, 2018
posted by Homer42 at 12:14 AM on June 6, 2018
The concept is not racist but the execution is weird.
On my first watch, I didn't understand that the chair thrown away must've been the Asian guy's. It looked like Nick Offerman was in his own driveway putting the chair back together and the Asian guy was in Nick Offerman's house. I actually still don't get it. Is the joke that Nick Offerman is sitting in the Asian guy's backyard using his thrown away stuff to host a barbecue? Why was he in the Asian guy's driveway then? If it were on a curb and he was walking past a house, it would've made far more sense.
The worst part of the ad is the dramatic music , the odd camera angle of the back of the guy's head and the stares. Instead of a light funny, awkward feel, it's weirdly tense. If they ditched the weird music and added a playful reaction, like a shrug or Nick Offerman saying "hey, want a hot dog?" and the homeowner still shutting the door, it would've felt a lot different.
I suspect they wanted the ad to feel manly and tough, but it comes across as more menacing than it should. I also suspect they used a non-white person to better clarify that this wasn't Nick Offerman's house because, again, the ad is confusing as hell. Nick Offerman is definitely a liberal and non-racist.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:55 AM on June 6, 2018
On my first watch, I didn't understand that the chair thrown away must've been the Asian guy's. It looked like Nick Offerman was in his own driveway putting the chair back together and the Asian guy was in Nick Offerman's house. I actually still don't get it. Is the joke that Nick Offerman is sitting in the Asian guy's backyard using his thrown away stuff to host a barbecue? Why was he in the Asian guy's driveway then? If it were on a curb and he was walking past a house, it would've made far more sense.
The worst part of the ad is the dramatic music , the odd camera angle of the back of the guy's head and the stares. Instead of a light funny, awkward feel, it's weirdly tense. If they ditched the weird music and added a playful reaction, like a shrug or Nick Offerman saying "hey, want a hot dog?" and the homeowner still shutting the door, it would've felt a lot different.
I suspect they wanted the ad to feel manly and tough, but it comes across as more menacing than it should. I also suspect they used a non-white person to better clarify that this wasn't Nick Offerman's house because, again, the ad is confusing as hell. Nick Offerman is definitely a liberal and non-racist.
posted by AppleTurnover at 12:55 AM on June 6, 2018
^ I guess it's more sound effects than music, but you get what I'm saying. Also, the casting is terrible because that party is basically all white people. It adds to a weird "other" vibe from the silence that is exacerbated by how confusing the commercial's setup is. It would be funnier if the homeowner was looking for his wife/son/whoever and found them hanging out with Nick Offerman at his party in the backyard.
I don't know who made this ad, but I am guessing they are all white. That's why diversity is important in the workplace. I remember working on something for my job and a black guy in my office recommended I change something in the copy. I wasn't sure why, but then he pointed it could be interpreted a certain way because the person being discussed what black. I would've never thought of it the way he saw it because I would've written the exact same thing if the person discussed were white, but he pointed out a way of people misinterpreting it that I could've never imagined. When I pointed out this out to him and agreed to change it, he basically said, "No worries. That's why I'm here and that's why it's good to get different perspectives." It wouldn't have been racist or offensive either way, but if anyone even has to think about stuff like this, you should probably go another route.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:08 AM on June 6, 2018
I don't know who made this ad, but I am guessing they are all white. That's why diversity is important in the workplace. I remember working on something for my job and a black guy in my office recommended I change something in the copy. I wasn't sure why, but then he pointed it could be interpreted a certain way because the person being discussed what black. I would've never thought of it the way he saw it because I would've written the exact same thing if the person discussed were white, but he pointed out a way of people misinterpreting it that I could've never imagined. When I pointed out this out to him and agreed to change it, he basically said, "No worries. That's why I'm here and that's why it's good to get different perspectives." It wouldn't have been racist or offensive either way, but if anyone even has to think about stuff like this, you should probably go another route.
posted by AppleTurnover at 1:08 AM on June 6, 2018
Response by poster: OK, it's not just me, although a bunch of people think I'm reading it wrong.
I'm a white guy. I fix broken stuff all the time, and J-B Weld is good stuff (although I have serious doubts that you could repair a broken gel chair with it.) Since the barbecue ad is the only one being shown on the programs I watch, and I had no idea who Offerman was, the whole backstory people are using to support a not-racist take was missing for me. I'd have to assume it was also missing for other people who lacked that information. Now that I have it, I can accept that the ad was not intentionally racist. However, as others have said, intent isn't the test.
I'd say the producers of the ad should have been more aware of the possibility that it would come off as racist.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:37 AM on June 6, 2018
I'm a white guy. I fix broken stuff all the time, and J-B Weld is good stuff (although I have serious doubts that you could repair a broken gel chair with it.) Since the barbecue ad is the only one being shown on the programs I watch, and I had no idea who Offerman was, the whole backstory people are using to support a not-racist take was missing for me. I'd have to assume it was also missing for other people who lacked that information. Now that I have it, I can accept that the ad was not intentionally racist. However, as others have said, intent isn't the test.
I'd say the producers of the ad should have been more aware of the possibility that it would come off as racist.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:37 AM on June 6, 2018
These are odd. I just watched them all.
It is weird that this character is going through people's garbage and recycling. It is weird that the scooter and go-kart commercials are the same family.
It is weird that in all of the commercials, the family members at the houses are all of color, except for one white husband.
The way he rocks the rocking chair on the flatbed is also weird.
posted by 41swans at 3:42 AM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
It is weird that this character is going through people's garbage and recycling. It is weird that the scooter and go-kart commercials are the same family.
It is weird that in all of the commercials, the family members at the houses are all of color, except for one white husband.
The way he rocks the rocking chair on the flatbed is also weird.
posted by 41swans at 3:42 AM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
The neighbors in these ads could be anybody, it’s not important. They threw something out, and the eccentric neighborhood handy guy, played by a celebrity with known handyman skills, fixes it and flaunts how his cleverness got him free stuff. The message is “don’t throw broken things away, fix them with glue.”
If the neighbors were all generic white straight able bodied middle aged people, people would rightly say that the casting is exclusionary. If the neighbors are more realistically diverse, it’s assumed by many that the ad is making a statement about whatever characteristics they have, e.g. “people of category x can’t fix things”.
People read so much into the casting because they have long held expectations about who they expect to see in ads, so any diversity is seen as significant to the plot in some way, not as realism.
posted by w0mbat at 5:35 AM on June 6, 2018
If the neighbors were all generic white straight able bodied middle aged people, people would rightly say that the casting is exclusionary. If the neighbors are more realistically diverse, it’s assumed by many that the ad is making a statement about whatever characteristics they have, e.g. “people of category x can’t fix things”.
People read so much into the casting because they have long held expectations about who they expect to see in ads, so any diversity is seen as significant to the plot in some way, not as realism.
posted by w0mbat at 5:35 AM on June 6, 2018
You're reading too much into it.
I disagree. Advertising and lots of other story telling is about the associations we make with things; images are very specifically chosen. A big part of the story of these advertisements calls to very clear ideas of (white) middle-American lifestyles and notions of masculinity. That comes through loud and clear based on the setting, the aesthetic, and what a lot of people associate with that imagery.
Additionally, these commercials have pretty distinct overtones of value and judgement in them, and the fact that the neighbors doing the wrong thing by throwing things out. With the other aesthetic things chosen for these commercials - suburbs, plaid, beards, backyard cookouts - there's a tinge that the neighbors aren't doing the suburbs or masculinity correctly. Or even America.
So yeah I think it's easy to read this - the explicit parts and the implicit parts - as "white guy's doing the right things, people of color are doing the wrong things." And what gives it that pang of racial discomfort is that neighbors being judges are people of color.
Advertising is about giving people feelings, and I'm not really sure why this campaign chooses to combine feelings of judgement and competition with this particular racial dynamic. They could have still gone for a weird goofy aesthetic with him giving things back to his neighbors, making friends or creating new connections, instilling a nice feeling of community and camaraderie, instead of "now i'm better than you."
Or, whatever, maybe they wanted us to have this conversation because now I am all like "dang i DO need more JBWeld in my life."
posted by entropone at 5:43 AM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I disagree. Advertising and lots of other story telling is about the associations we make with things; images are very specifically chosen. A big part of the story of these advertisements calls to very clear ideas of (white) middle-American lifestyles and notions of masculinity. That comes through loud and clear based on the setting, the aesthetic, and what a lot of people associate with that imagery.
Additionally, these commercials have pretty distinct overtones of value and judgement in them, and the fact that the neighbors doing the wrong thing by throwing things out. With the other aesthetic things chosen for these commercials - suburbs, plaid, beards, backyard cookouts - there's a tinge that the neighbors aren't doing the suburbs or masculinity correctly. Or even America.
So yeah I think it's easy to read this - the explicit parts and the implicit parts - as "white guy's doing the right things, people of color are doing the wrong things." And what gives it that pang of racial discomfort is that neighbors being judges are people of color.
Advertising is about giving people feelings, and I'm not really sure why this campaign chooses to combine feelings of judgement and competition with this particular racial dynamic. They could have still gone for a weird goofy aesthetic with him giving things back to his neighbors, making friends or creating new connections, instilling a nice feeling of community and camaraderie, instead of "now i'm better than you."
Or, whatever, maybe they wanted us to have this conversation because now I am all like "dang i DO need more JBWeld in my life."
posted by entropone at 5:43 AM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
These could have been so much better if Offerman fixed his neighbor's cast-offs, then held a party in his own home where the invited neighbor noticed their old stuff being used and looked wistful. If it was scripted this way, the ethnicity of the neighbor would be less important- they would be included and even if they felt a bit foolish for failing to fix stuff it wouldn't be such an us-vs-them situation. Another tactic would be to make the neighbors obnoxious 1%ers, so the ads punch up.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 8:49 AM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 8:49 AM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think all of them except for the patio one would "work" if the allwhite producers hadn't made the idiotic phoned-in decision to try to multiculti them. The patio one would not work under any circumstances because Nick Offerman is grilling pork chops for his friends ON THE ASIAN GUY'S PATIO NEXT TO THE ASIAN GUY'S POOL. They're basically in his house (the placidly turning ceiling fan, the hanging plant with its gentle blossoms). They've appropriated his property. He has been forced to quarter soldiers in the war on waste.
I watched it over and over and over because I was trying to make it work logically in my head what was going on. At first I was like, "Okay, they share a driveway...?" (This only occurred to me because I live this very situation. I, a white, share a driveway with my dearly beloved neighbor who I hope never moves, the Asian tango enthusiast and aerospace engineering postdoc. The driveway splits off in a Y to our respective garages, so we can each park two cars in our respective legs of the Y without impeding the other's access to the base of the Y, but each of us has to tell additional guests to park on the street so that they don't park the neighbor in.)
But they don't share any of this property: Nick Offerman is just stealing it. Nick Offerman walked up the guy's driveway and took the guy's garbage back to his sinister workshop. Then he came back on the guy's property with the JBWelded garbage and pork chops and a whole crew of people in order to stage one of his elaborate scenes of reproach. This goes way beyond performance art. JB Weld should not be advocating that people crime on their neighbors just to teach them frugality.
Question: Why is it so cloudy on the barbecue day? They have to have decided that, right? Or did they just lack budget to shoot on a sunny day? All the other ones are in that nice late-day sunlight.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:58 AM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
I watched it over and over and over because I was trying to make it work logically in my head what was going on. At first I was like, "Okay, they share a driveway...?" (This only occurred to me because I live this very situation. I, a white, share a driveway with my dearly beloved neighbor who I hope never moves, the Asian tango enthusiast and aerospace engineering postdoc. The driveway splits off in a Y to our respective garages, so we can each park two cars in our respective legs of the Y without impeding the other's access to the base of the Y, but each of us has to tell additional guests to park on the street so that they don't park the neighbor in.)
But they don't share any of this property: Nick Offerman is just stealing it. Nick Offerman walked up the guy's driveway and took the guy's garbage back to his sinister workshop. Then he came back on the guy's property with the JBWelded garbage and pork chops and a whole crew of people in order to stage one of his elaborate scenes of reproach. This goes way beyond performance art. JB Weld should not be advocating that people crime on their neighbors just to teach them frugality.
Question: Why is it so cloudy on the barbecue day? They have to have decided that, right? Or did they just lack budget to shoot on a sunny day? All the other ones are in that nice late-day sunlight.
posted by Don Pepino at 8:58 AM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Couple deleted. Let's not have this become more of a general debate among commenters, and to that end, if you've made your point once you don't need to restate.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:56 AM on June 6, 2018
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:56 AM on June 6, 2018
I'm going to change my answer after some reflection. I can still read it as two neighbors kinda tsking at each other, but putting an alpha white male character (JB Weld guy is the bbq-er and leader of the conversation) in conflict with anyone other than another white dude, where there's no other context, is really easy to read as on the scale between oblivious and punching down.
Thank you, mefites.
posted by zippy at 10:24 AM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Thank you, mefites.
posted by zippy at 10:24 AM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Hey OP, I know I'm coming late to the party but I agree, there is a really Trumpish racist message to all three of the ads I watched.
I don't know the actor; I never saw Parks and Rec. In all three ads he is so creepy. First he steals broken stuff that does not belong to him, then he fixes it, then he taunts the original owners of the objects, and in the three ads I saw all of the owners are PoC. I mean, WTF?
Like, it was especially creepy with the mom and son. Twice. It actually reads to me (and I don't care if it's not on purpose) like a form of domestic terrorism. These folks can't leave their homes because a creepy, racist white man is being aggressive toward them while using stuff that used to belong to them.
When I watched the first ad I wondered why the main actor didn't invite the Asian guy to sit in the chair he had repaired and join the enjoyment of the BBQ.
In the scooter ad, I wondered why the main actor didn't stop in front of the house and put the scooter back on the porch in a friendly fashion and invite the boy to have fun with it. Ditto for the go cart.
Honestly, this could have been a sweet series about a guerrilla handyman making the neighborhood better for the families who lived there. Instead it's like the opposite and thank you, OP, for calling this to my attention. I will be contacting the advertising, no kidding. (FYI, white old lady here.)
posted by Bella Donna at 8:27 AM on June 15, 2018
I don't know the actor; I never saw Parks and Rec. In all three ads he is so creepy. First he steals broken stuff that does not belong to him, then he fixes it, then he taunts the original owners of the objects, and in the three ads I saw all of the owners are PoC. I mean, WTF?
Like, it was especially creepy with the mom and son. Twice. It actually reads to me (and I don't care if it's not on purpose) like a form of domestic terrorism. These folks can't leave their homes because a creepy, racist white man is being aggressive toward them while using stuff that used to belong to them.
When I watched the first ad I wondered why the main actor didn't invite the Asian guy to sit in the chair he had repaired and join the enjoyment of the BBQ.
In the scooter ad, I wondered why the main actor didn't stop in front of the house and put the scooter back on the porch in a friendly fashion and invite the boy to have fun with it. Ditto for the go cart.
Honestly, this could have been a sweet series about a guerrilla handyman making the neighborhood better for the families who lived there. Instead it's like the opposite and thank you, OP, for calling this to my attention. I will be contacting the advertising, no kidding. (FYI, white old lady here.)
posted by Bella Donna at 8:27 AM on June 15, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
The guy who comes to the sliding door is the one who threw the chair out. He sees that the other guy not only glued it back together, but is having fun sitting around with his friends in the now repaired chair.
Where's the problem?
posted by BostonTerrier at 12:37 PM on June 5, 2018 [10 favorites]