Controlling birth and black kids

My hair is not curly! Hers isn’t either! Did you ever notice that in almost every commercial, African American woman, and even men have curly, “natural”, or dread-locked hair? It’s bad enough that African Americans are only in commercials here and there, and when they are, they show the stereotypical black person in them.

There’s one commercial that always catches my attention. The commercial is for Mirena, which is a form of birth control for women. I believe the purpose of the commercial is to reach young mothers that aren’t ready to have more kids.

In the process of getting the message across, Mirena shows consumers the stereotypical black family, where the mother does the shopping, caring for, and bonding with the children and the father does nothing. It shows that the mother is not attentive to the children, who are running wild in the house and in public. Truth is, this commercial shows that not only does the birth need controlling, but the kids do as well. I don’t know about other moms, but if my siblings and I would have acted close to the way the kids in the video were acting, we would have gotten the “if you don’t calm down…” look.

When I see the commercial, I never pay attention to the message for too long, because I am focused on the curly hair aspect. (When I say curly hair, I am referring to the stereotype that African American people do not have long, straight hair.) Before actually reviewing the commercial, I never observed all of the risks of Mirena. It says that it can be life threatening! To me, that isn’t worth it!

I noticed that the acting in the commercial seems to overpower the negative in the message. On some of the positive portions, they show only the product which causes the viewer to pay attention to it. When they speak of the risks, they automatically show the kids playing, which takes the audience’s focus away from them.

In the end, I wouldn’t be one to use Mirena not only because of the stereotypes, but because of the high risks of death and health problems. My suggestion to the company would be to create a less hectic commercial, without hidden messages to the consumer. Otherwise, people that notice those messages will stray away from the product.