no, seriously.
i have been watching escapist magazine's 'big picture' segment and for the last couple days there has been an ad for the galaxy note two by samsung, it features a black athlete(or i would assume since the way it is set up suggests he is important and into or a part of sports) going into a barbershop to get his hair cut(well reshaped, he has nothing but stubble on his head and face). he smacks himself on the head, repeats words speaks only briefly, his mates all speak in repeated words and very briefly as well(which is to say nothing is being said at all) he makes exaggerated gestures and grins like a moron(well everyone does, it is supposed to be a 'fun' experience), when someone wants to share something(surprise, surprise sports) everyone crowds around despite being in a barbershop getting their hair cut/trimmed/styled/so-forth-altered in a little circle to watch and then make exaggerated faces and noises before throwing the standard line in of wanting to share with others what they saw
(sorry i can't find this particular edit anywhere else but no other adverts have been playing for me so this /should/ be the correct one just close the tab when it shows the phone so you don't get caught up listening to a guy bitch hahaha)
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...other-Watchmen
normally this would just be another lame way of getting in a few fans of whatever(or whomever) in under a needlessly complicated plan to buy but i have seen this something like 40 times now barring the last two or three which i have skipped but the setup (barbershop) group of people(young black men most of whom would be at work or at home) all loitering around and getting excited over a particularly slow-seeming fellow(presumably an athlete) and hooting, crowding and being overly rambunctious over a clip on a phone instead of say, you know staying in their seats and getting their hair /cut/ like they were supposed to be seems more than a tad racist, /especially/ since the whole thing is capped with a feel-good seventies 'black spirit' kind of song
it only gets more peculiar compared to the 'full' commercial i found on youtube which does not show him as a moronic stereotypical black sports jock but some rich dude with a cool phone that he totes everywhere. the longer version give a totally different vibe despite having most of the same footage and wouldn't strike me as racist no matter /how/ many times i saw it(still annoying though, that song is stuck in my head)
(about 50 seconds in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrtVRh2v3Dk
does anyone else see something odd in this? i realize the blatant sexism in commercials is much more exciting but all the same it seems really peculiar to me that it would be shown this way