Which Came First? Racism or the Egg?

It's the 21st century, and for the most part, we all know that racism is bad.  That doesn't mean that racism and ethnic stereotypes don't exist. But if we "know" that these stereotypes are wrong, then why do they exist? How do they get started? Some would make the argument that they have been around since the dawn of time, others would say that they were instilled into us as a society. But what tool would be powerful enough to brainwash billions of people into believing a certain stereotype about a specific ethnic group? Well if you refer to my first blog Advertising: A Real Life Superpower? I talk about advertising being a powerful weapon, or tool,  that has the ability  "inspire people".  Some people think that the world of advertising can use this power to inspire evil; asking the question, does advertising set the standard of racial and ethnic stereotypes? Or does it simply mirror society? A question almost as tough to answer as "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" I've always said the chicken came first, and in my opinion the chicken, in this case, is racial stereotypes...making advertising the egg.
Now don't get me wrong, advertising is definitely not innocent, and never has been.  The advertising world  has been(and still is) using racism and ethnic stereotypes to their advantage since the beginning of advertising.

This a print ad from Pears' Soap in 1886. Not too racist upfront, but if you look at the text "produces soft, WHITE, and beautiful hands" we can see a slight racial tone. Throughout their history, Pears' Soap has made the point that "white is right", which is even more apparent in many of their later ads...

The history of advertising can be traced back to the early 19th century, which seems like a long time ago but in the grand spectrum of things, advertising is still pretty young.  Whereas racial and ethnic stereotypes have no true history or beginning, but I think it's safe to say that they have been around longer than 200 years.  So fast forward over 200 years later, and we are still getting ads like this one from Australia...

This ad is pretty straightforward.  Japanese people are whale slaughtering, selfish people who don't care about marine life whatsoever...but we do, so come drink our beer. 

 Many of us know that whaling is a real thing, and quite a problem for our marine wildlife.  We also know that most of this gruesome act happens in the Pacific Ocean and more times than not it is near Japan.  But if you were to base your judgment on the Japanese people solely on this ad, you would think that every Japanese person is an evil, whale hating, sushi lover.  So how do advertisement agencies get away with this? Well, most of the time they aren't as blunt and straight forward as the previous ad(and when they are, they usually get pulled...like this advertisement from SONY), but that doesn't mean that they still don't exist.  For example, I have a roommate(who is black) that stopped eating McDonald's altogether solely on the fact that their ads were so racist.  As a white male, I never really noticed it until he pointed it out to me, but now every time I see a McDonald's ad(or any fast food ad really) I can't help pick out the little underlying racist tones, such as this...

Part of me gets it.  I understand the concept of target audiences and playing to them.  But at what point, if any, does it cross the line? Look at this McDonald's ad.  Obviously playing to the african american community, by using stereotypes that black people are all "smooth" R&B singers who are "hip" to the new "hot" thing...even if it is a dipping sauce.  Well, apparently, ads like this past McDonald's one and this one here Hot n Spicy, have already crossed the line for some people, such as my roommate. But does the advertising world have a moral obligation to stay away from these stereotypes?  As a whole, I don't think the advertising world has any obligation to do anything, except sell their product. 

The people in the advertisement business have one job; make people want to buy their product. In order to do this, you first must establish who you want to sell your product to.  Once that is established, you than must figure out how to connect to that group of people.  Obviously, in this case, McDonald's is playing to the African American(and all ethnic groups in the "hot n spicy" ad), and in order to do this they felt that they must connect with these groups. So they did the only way they knew how, and that's by fulfilling as many stereotypes as possible in a 30 second commercial. It's not their fault that these stereotypes have been set by society.  But is it their fault that they are still alive in our society today? Some would argue that it's a merry go round that will never stop.  As long as we(society) keep thinking these thoughts and placing these stereotypes on specific groups of people, the advertising world is going to keep using them as ammo...and as long as they use that "ammo"our brains are going to continue to be "pumped full of lead"(lead of course being racial slurs and thoughts in this case).  So once again, we sit here asking ourselves, what came first? The chicken or the egg? Will society be the "chicken" and wise up? Start thinking for themselves and deleting these stereotypes from society, forcing advertising to change it's game. Or will the advertising community take the higher ground and stray away from these stereotypes, being the "chicken" that lays the egg to erase these thoughts from our society? Or do we simply stick with the chicken we know, and all the eggs that come with it?