I did a short video essay on the strange phenomenon of how casting in films, TV, and adverts must now always be the exact opposite of reality, even down to Deliveroo riders being depicted as white women.
Brilliant piece, Nick. Thanks! It's all so maddening isn't it? We watch very little TV now because of this. We find ourselves following individuals on YouTube who adventure into wild places. Wholesome folk doing wholesome stuff and none of them claim to be women if they're men or black.if they're white. Even wedding ads only feature same sex couples. We are meant to believe men don't marry women anymore. I'm monitoring ads on FB. I'd say they are 90% black or brown faces. Thing is, we actively boycott all the companies that try to force feed us this lack of reality. So why do they do it?! And don't get me started on those videos of women being harassed on The Tube. We all know the culprit is always a white man in a suit. Yeah, right!! We have never used Deliveroo or any food delivery services. We are old school, being of an age, where we collect a Chinese if we want one. I WILL be on the lookout for all those white women delivering pizzas to dodgy blocks of flats in the dead of night. What a wholesome career path. OMG everything makes me so mad these days!!
Interestingly Ive just been to NZ where my sons girlfriend is a deliveroo driver as her part time job at college. She is blonde and a little over 6ft tall. It made me realise that without the black market undercutting we have here our youngsters could do as she does. As Nick rightly says all our deliveroo folk are ( illegal) migrants.
My youngest son, his wife and my only grandchildren have decided to move to NZ in 3 or 4 years ( to fit in with schooling). They have lived & worked there before. It's encouraging to hear what you say!!
I went to the South Island, 3 weeks , did a circuit of it I suppose. People were very polite and a bit laconic. There is no showing off and basically I had to behave better and be more old fashioned I envy anyone who is able to make a life there.
The only odd thing was I didnt see one single muslim but they seemed to be able to cope without them.
Excellent essay. I find myself playing “ woke bingo” when watching anything on TV now (which is rare), but it’s not fun really, I am angry and sad that I have been forced to become so cynical. It wasn’t like this decades ago, I felt part of Britain then rather than a dissident as now.
Sorry, just had to say it: 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.' This virus has infected everything, ironically even my own field of mental health has become mentally ill. You've got to laugh...or something. Very nice essay Nick and thank you.
Excellent Nick. I'm reminded of the depths to which the Soviet Union plummeted where people no longer trusted thermometers to tell them what the temperature was.
Very good Nick, I watched this twice in a row. The comparison with the situation in the USSR really hits home. We are told blatant lies that are not even really believed by the people telling them, but we have to nod along and comply or we're tarred as being some sort of dissident, outside of the community of the good. More and more, I feel like I'm living in Milan Kundera's novel The Joke.
Very well said indeed. This insufferable nonsense fools nobody and bores everyone. We’ve got to la-la phase now. People of sense will tune into you instead!
Nice work. It's not easy to get a point over in a few minutes. Closest I've got to their claim is an Eastern European deliveroo driver who got the wrong street, twice. Had to tell him that I'm pretty sure I know where I live. Wasn't my order obvs as I don't use them.
The odd thing to me about the bladverts is that the massive over-representation of black and mixed-race couples and kids doesn't seem to extend to other on-whites, who represent a much larger minority. Peculiar. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, Nick? Beats me. And the best one at the moment is in the usual soaps my missus watches and that I am subjected to by proximity, even with headphones and podcasts; where the proportion of gay v straight couples is comical, and not only that but in one soap where a "love triangle" is going on, the male gays need to be the most hyper-straight looking and straight acting men you could imagine........just to complete the reality inversion exercise.
This stuff goes back a long way. The people who run advertising agencies were never the target of its products, so advertising has always operated in parentheses. The geezer and deb creatives of yore have been joined by people from university Studies courses, for whom a critique of the process and cultural framework it functions in, are second nature. Promoting the product is secondary to its political subtext. This is as true of television adverts at is is of drama, news and the weather. They are a seamless political garment.
Brilliant piece, Nick. Thanks! It's all so maddening isn't it? We watch very little TV now because of this. We find ourselves following individuals on YouTube who adventure into wild places. Wholesome folk doing wholesome stuff and none of them claim to be women if they're men or black.if they're white. Even wedding ads only feature same sex couples. We are meant to believe men don't marry women anymore. I'm monitoring ads on FB. I'd say they are 90% black or brown faces. Thing is, we actively boycott all the companies that try to force feed us this lack of reality. So why do they do it?! And don't get me started on those videos of women being harassed on The Tube. We all know the culprit is always a white man in a suit. Yeah, right!! We have never used Deliveroo or any food delivery services. We are old school, being of an age, where we collect a Chinese if we want one. I WILL be on the lookout for all those white women delivering pizzas to dodgy blocks of flats in the dead of night. What a wholesome career path. OMG everything makes me so mad these days!!
Thank you, Nick. 👏
Good video essay.
Interestingly Ive just been to NZ where my sons girlfriend is a deliveroo driver as her part time job at college. She is blonde and a little over 6ft tall. It made me realise that without the black market undercutting we have here our youngsters could do as she does. As Nick rightly says all our deliveroo folk are ( illegal) migrants.
My youngest son, his wife and my only grandchildren have decided to move to NZ in 3 or 4 years ( to fit in with schooling). They have lived & worked there before. It's encouraging to hear what you say!!
I went to the South Island, 3 weeks , did a circuit of it I suppose. People were very polite and a bit laconic. There is no showing off and basically I had to behave better and be more old fashioned I envy anyone who is able to make a life there.
The only odd thing was I didnt see one single muslim but they seemed to be able to cope without them.
Excellent essay. I find myself playing “ woke bingo” when watching anything on TV now (which is rare), but it’s not fun really, I am angry and sad that I have been forced to become so cynical. It wasn’t like this decades ago, I felt part of Britain then rather than a dissident as now.
Sorry, just had to say it: 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.' This virus has infected everything, ironically even my own field of mental health has become mentally ill. You've got to laugh...or something. Very nice essay Nick and thank you.
Great little essay!
Absolutely 100% spot on.
Excellent Nick. I'm reminded of the depths to which the Soviet Union plummeted where people no longer trusted thermometers to tell them what the temperature was.
Very good Nick, I watched this twice in a row. The comparison with the situation in the USSR really hits home. We are told blatant lies that are not even really believed by the people telling them, but we have to nod along and comply or we're tarred as being some sort of dissident, outside of the community of the good. More and more, I feel like I'm living in Milan Kundera's novel The Joke.
Very well said indeed. This insufferable nonsense fools nobody and bores everyone. We’ve got to la-la phase now. People of sense will tune into you instead!
Nice work. It's not easy to get a point over in a few minutes. Closest I've got to their claim is an Eastern European deliveroo driver who got the wrong street, twice. Had to tell him that I'm pretty sure I know where I live. Wasn't my order obvs as I don't use them.
Hola mate! I got this alert, so let’s goooooooo!!
See ya xx
Why are you laughing?
The odd thing to me about the bladverts is that the massive over-representation of black and mixed-race couples and kids doesn't seem to extend to other on-whites, who represent a much larger minority. Peculiar. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, Nick? Beats me. And the best one at the moment is in the usual soaps my missus watches and that I am subjected to by proximity, even with headphones and podcasts; where the proportion of gay v straight couples is comical, and not only that but in one soap where a "love triangle" is going on, the male gays need to be the most hyper-straight looking and straight acting men you could imagine........just to complete the reality inversion exercise.
This stuff goes back a long way. The people who run advertising agencies were never the target of its products, so advertising has always operated in parentheses. The geezer and deb creatives of yore have been joined by people from university Studies courses, for whom a critique of the process and cultural framework it functions in, are second nature. Promoting the product is secondary to its political subtext. This is as true of television adverts at is is of drama, news and the weather. They are a seamless political garment.