My thoughts on the subject are not going to be popular but here they are:
Racism is pretty much dead in the US, a lot of people will say it's not, and that it's simply much more hidden, etc, etc... or argue all kinds of extended definitions of racism that have little to do with race more than bigotry towards specific cultures and behaviors (which is an entirely differant issue). Perhaps the best example you need of racism being dead as a mainstream phenomena in the US is that we have a Black president, who could not have been elected without support from whites (the ethnic majority). If racism was a major societal force this would not have happened, and what's more there would be no need for it to be "underground".
At any rate, where racism is dead it's still a major political rallying point, ESPECIALLY for minorities that have largely been defining themselves through the battle. As guys like Bill Cosby have pointed out in discussions about education, we're at a time where there is nobody keeping anyone else down, it's the hard part comparitively, where people have to TAKE those oppertunities and go out and become educated. The problems facing groups like black America are subcultures that don't value work and education, but rather conflict, and a "git rich or die trying" attitude about forcing society to conform to your whims, rather than striving to conform to it now that doing so is possible. To the people who don't want to conform to society and just be normal, the idea of an ongoing battle is appealing, it's better to have an enemy to rage against, and an excuse to not follow the rules, than to do your part to fit in. Someone providing that enemy, can thus rally minorities, especially blacks in cases of racism involving them, to their banner because on a lot of levels it's what they want to hear, not the racism but rather an example of societal racism that can be fought. The ethnicity of the person doing the rallying doesn't much matter either, since it's the cause that's important, and the leader pulling it off can always exploit that power base and not just for direct votes. With racism being more or less dead as a mainstream phenomena finding things to rally people around this kind of cause is more difficult. It's a situation where there is no huge conspiricy of secret racists under most bushes, it's just that people don't care in a practical sense, especially not businesses. The threat posed by a few guys in white sheets passing notes in a bayou also isn't the kind of threat that can seriously rally people, as it's just not big enough. On the other hand if someone can spin a commercial like this by trying to make it into something that it's not, but the audience WANTS to see for their own reasons... well that can be a powerful tool.
The point here is that there is nothing at all racist about this commercial, however I think that there is hope that by making enough noise it can be made to SEEM like some kind of racist stereotyping, and outrage about it can be played politically.
In looking at this commercial, like a bunch of other people I really can't see anything that is race specific here, and I'm not sure who is being discriminated against. I mean sure, the wife is a harpy (to an exagerrated, humerous degree) but that's not race specific. The victim of the piece is white, and really the only thing I could think of being racist about is is the white girl being assaulted and the black couple running away to avoid responsobility, but that's really pushing it since them being black has little to do with the vibe of the whole thing.
What's more there isn't going to be any kind of "secret" or even "unintentional" racial message here, because this is an ad running during some of the most high profile and ridiculously expensive airtime to exist. Anyone who thinks that this was not CAREFULLY reviewed among many submissions from commercial creators who would kill to have their commercial for that product put on the air then is insane. This thing was probably subjected to a bloody microscope, and brough up before focus groups to measure advertising impact beforehand. There is nothing there unless you WANT it to be there, and as I'm saying above, I think that's what it comes down to, people desperate to create a boogieman.
Thank the guys at the Avatar Store who made it for me. I stumbled onto that scene just browsing random horror flicks on Netflix. Lucky find I guess. Also, you've reminded me that 'mad' is a cool expression.
