posermobile[1]

An African American man is on the phone at a bowling alley when he is rushed by a screaming Asian man wearing a blue velour sweat suit. Poser Mobile flashes on the screen. You then see the Asian man with a group of other non-African American young men wearing stereotypical hip hop attire. The man in blue says Poser mobile saves ya pre-paid minutes, yo. The black man says I just bought minutes The man in blue says fees shorty, fees another man says 25 cents to connect another says extra dollar a day extra the guy in front yells BOOM! The black man replies you guys are clowns. The group responds to him by beat boxing and dancing with stereotypical hip hop dance moves. The voice over comes in saying getting burned by your prepaid company? The black man says Im outta here. The black man says No hidden fees The voice over continues introducing T-Mobile to go. Get more prepaid minutes without hidden fees or contracts. The black man says Sweet, and the voice over says T-Mobile to go. Straight up. Prepaid.

T-Mobile blatantly references that they are playing off of the poser image and has the non-African American actors wearing stereotypical hip hop gear and speaking in slang, or Ebonics. Words like shorty and yo are all stereotypical language of hip hop culture. In alluding to the non-African American actors being posers, they make fun of white people who want to be black and attempt to do so by reinforcing stereotypes. Like some minstrels, the posers who appreciate certain elements of black culture embrace them and showcase them. Unlike the minstrels, the poser seeks to gain acceptance with the minority group where as minstrels were performed for the white majority. This ad maintains stereotypes of African Americans as being musical, slang talking and hip hop oriented. The reason that the parody works is because of assumed racial roles. The Asian, who is stereotypically portrayed as being smart and structured, is now the leader of the group lampooning black ignorance. Meanwhile the African American is shown as being reserved and articulate

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• poser
• wigger
• advertising
• advertisement
• commercial
• offensive
• african american
• stereotype
• racist
• racism
• t-mobile

[beegeezee505]

Fees, Shorty! Fees!

[Bandrik]

Also, your write-up analyzing the commercial was interesting - certainly few go into such depths over a commercial, but it was certainly a neat thing to read through. Especially because the commercial does indeed play off racial and ethnic stereotypes.

[Bandrik]

YES! I loved this commercial because it was so over-the-top and silly. Thanks for posting it! :D