Deb> I have mixed feelings about this. Has anyone else seen it?
Although I haven't seen it, based on your description, I don't think I
would have any mixed feelings about the ad. It seems to be another in
a long line of media images which reinforce stereotypes. The average
American has an image of Indian people as having feathers in their
hair, sending smoke signals, scalping people, making arts and crafts,
and doing rain dances. Of course, these things have all been done at
one time or another by some Native Americans, but the question
becomes: at what point does continually pushing certain images *to the
exclusion of others* become a disservice?
The image of a rain dance is one which the average American is certain
to associate with Native Americans. Advertising relies on these sorts
of "building blocks" to communicate information; that is why so much
advertising is so reprehensible, since the building blocks it uses are
ones which have been produced by a spiritually sick society. Car ads
juxtapose their product with women who have typically "beautiful"
(read: European and thin) appearances, to show that if you buy the
car, somehow the woman will become yours as well (it's a package deal:
woman, status, etc. etc. comes with the car).
When ads use elderly actors, they rely on people's perception of old
people as being slow, cautious, concerned, etc., and direct this in
two ways; either they are buying medicine or insurance, and this shows
that you can trust the product because the cautious old person does;
or they advertise something which is so exciting that the cautious old
person becomes wild and crazy (e.g. Pepsi).
Well, I've strayed a little off the beaten path, but the point I am
trying to make is that the Lexus ad doesn't sound new, sensitive, or
ultimately productive; it is using a time-worn stereotype to sell a
car with bad gas mileage (which will make the rain that falls on it in
the ad acid rain; maybe it will even eat the finish off :-) ).
Mark
-- Mark Towfiq towfiq@FTP.COM Work: +1 617 246 0900 Home: +1 617 488 2818 FTP Software, Wakefield, MA 51 Harvard Avenue, West Medford, MA 02155"The Earth is but One Country, and Mankind its Citizens" -- Baha'u'llah