Jell-O Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKxWQCs3f0&feature=related

This is a Jell-O ad that was produced in the 1960’s. It starts out by an Asian voice introducing a Chinese baby who is waiting to be served his desert. The Chinese mother comes out with a plate of Jell-O and gives it to the baby who has a set of chopsticks. The baby tries to eat the Jell-O with the chopsticks, but is unable to accomplish this task using them. The mother then brings out “a great western invention”, which is seen as a spoon. The baby is then able to eat the Jell-O and becomes happy, which ends the commercial.

I found this commercial online on the You Tube website. Even though it was not a current commercial, I picked it because I thought that it showed a lot of stereotypes of both the Chinese culture and the American culture. In the essay Framework Essay: Constructing Categories of Difference by Karen Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle Travis, they talk about all the master statuses are broken down into two or more different groups. One master status mentioned as race. People are often grouped into a white “American” category or a non-white category, which usually consists of Africans, Asians, and other people of color. There are various stereotypes that go along with both categories. The idea that the baby tries to use a utensil that he could not eat Jell-O with shows that the idea of chopsticks are an unintelligence invention. The narrator states “Chinese mother brings Chinese baby great Western invention. Spoon!”. The narrator is giving the white race credit for the idea of a spoon. By doing this, the commercial is implying that the white western culture has a higher level of intelligence.

Another noticeable stereotype that could be seen in the commercial was the use of the narrator’s accent and use of language. A viewer could tell that it was a white man doing an impression of a Chinese accent. “Chinese baby very happy!”. The voice heard talked childlike in broken English. The speech did not include the words like the or is throughout sentences, which are essential to correct English grammar. This was also another way for the writers of the commercial to show that the Chinese are not as intelligent as “white Americans”. This commercial definitely got across the idea that two different racial groups are not equal with one group being superiorly intelligent to the other one.

I was very surprised at how much it was focused around the Chinese race and how an eating utensil that they commonly used what shown as a useless object; almost as if it was not a good enough invention. Also, I did not like how often the word Chinese used. Almost every time the words mother and baby were used, the word Chinese was put in front of it. I felt that it was overemphasizing the already obvious ethnicity of the mother and baby. I thought it was weird that Asians were portrayed as less intelligent than white people since now they are usually stereotyped as more intelligent. It was different to see a different stereotype of the Asian culture shown.