See that video up there? That's the old animated BC Clark Anniversary Sale commercial. It's the one you like. You know, the one you stop and watch whenever it comes on the air. The one that features the 1950s-style commercial jingle that you, your parents and grandparents all sing and know by heart.
Well, it seems like BC Clark is a Scrooge and doesn't like that commercial. For many years now, they've all but ditched the original jingle for a series of "Anniversary Sale" commercials featuring random groups of people singing verses at the mall. The commercials are terrible. They don't have any musical accompaniment and most of the people can't sing. They're about as enjoyable as a Jenni Carlson feature about fruit cake and candy canes.
The commercials also feature way too many white people. And by white people, I mean lots and lots and lots of boring plain white people. It's like watching a Seinfeld episode inside an L.L. Bean catalog at the Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club. Seriously, check the commercials out. Count how many white people you see:
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Lose count? Don't worry, I'm pathetic and did the research for you. Here are the results: Commercials: 3
Groups of People: 38
Total Singers: 130
White Singers: 126 (96.9%)
White Singers who know sign language: 2
Black Singers: 4 (3.1%)
Black Singers who know sign language: 2
Yeah, you read that right. According to our calculations, 96.9%* of the people in the BC Clark commercials are white. In other news, we live in a state that just voted to ban affirmative action programs. That's comforting.
Anyway, here's a little advice for the people at BC Clark. Not everyone in Oklahoma is white and goes to church in Edmond. Failing to recognize or promote diversity makes you look ignorant and dumb. If you're going to make a terrible commercial featuring everyday Oklahomans singing your holiday jingle, make sure you represent all types Oklahomans. Or better yet, don't make that commercial at all and just show us the damn cartoon with the song we like. That's probably a better idea anyway.
*My stats may be off by a white person or two. We should probably hire a research assistant. Also, how much do you want to bet that Dan Gordon is frantically following black people in Twitter as you're reading this?
