Dillon’s pick this week is the ad above for “Confederate Family Insurance. It was so offensive, that we realized it couldn’t possibly be true. Indeed, it is from Spike Lee’s faux documentary “Confederate States of America,” that looks at the US as thought the South had won the Civil War. It’s extreme representations, however, provide perfect…
DetailsThe “olden days” of diversity training started with “the other.” It assumed a majority culture norm, and defined everyone else in contrast to the norm. “This group behaves this way. This group behaves that way.” The anthropological approach gives each group ‘hegemony,’ the power to exist in its own right. It recognizes the inherent value…
DetailsThere’s so much fodder just looking at stereotypes and unconscious bias in US advertising, that there’s not much time to take a look at ads in other countries, but this ad (thanks to Larry Kolb in Rgober Ebert’s Journal) is a fun peek into advertising appearances by Hollywood stars in Japan. Having been asked at a park in…
DetailsDavid Giantasio questioned on Adfreak, why, after becoming an ex-smoker, the “hero” of the ad (from Amercian Legacy, the NATC, the Ad Council and GSD&M Idea City) didn’t shoot higher than bowling (above) or operating a fork-lift. As an ex-smoker (June 24, 1986, but who’s keeping track?) the week you quit smoking really is not the time to take on…
DetailsTwice in two weeks I’ve been incredibly jealous when reading of projects or ventures of friends or colleagues. But, if ‘birds of a feather flock together,” I’m glad to be in the same group as these birds. It’s one thing to talk about multiculturalism, another to create businesses and projects that allow people to live…
DetailsHave you ever been in a position at work where you are working your tail off and all you hear is criticism from those around you? As explained by a sympathetic friend to me once, “it’s like the idea of a moving target. If everyone else is sitting around doing nothing, you running by…
DetailsHave you heard the old joke that plays on the philosophical question about a tree falling in the forest? You know the one… “If you’re in the forest and you say something wrong and your spouse (of course I’m going with the gender neutral version!) doesn’t hear you, are you still wrong?” While seemingly innocuous,…
DetailsMultilingal (20 languages!) Robot a la C3PO RATS! Looks like the government is moving yet closer to solving issues for multilingual, real-time translation, with the launch of Robust Automatic Translation of Speech (this link is to the RFP to build the program–reminds me a little of hearing about a contest for 5th graders to come up…
DetailsI picked up a brilliant piece of literature today that had the amazing effect of revealing my US ethnocentrism within 5 seconds. I’m sure it’s on the New York Times Bestseller list. You may have heard of it? It’s called 1001 Cool Freaky Facts with Glen Singleton (Highly recommended and left on the breakfast table…
DetailsIf you are in Chicago, or even worse, DC or the East Coast, as you may be cursing right now, shoveling snow for the thrid time in as many hours, only to find that the snow has magically reappeared on your sidewalk, might it help to think of the people living in warmer climates around the…
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