Blogs by Flo Fitzpatrick
Commercials and Diversity
9/27/2026 2:07:02 PM
Occasionally, things give me hope for this nation. Commercials, while often annoying, often provide a great look at this nation… and Diversity. The little leprechaun hawking an online casino makes her pitch in the car of a subway train to a mix of ethnicities, ages, genders, even economic background (folks in suits and folks in hoodies). Drug commercials generally show a diverse group of people at a picnic or strolling somewhere exotic. There are realtors pounding Sold signs in front of houses portraying new owners who are of different ethnic backgrounds…even (gasp!) same sex couples. Travel sites give us an assortment of complexions on swimmers in the ocean or the giant cruise ship pool. In other words…ads are aimed at what I believe constitute the true “look” of America.
Commercials exist to sell a product. Bottom line…make money for the producer of said product. These are not a bunch of philanthropic, forward-thinking, altruistic company members trying to change the world for the better. The products are aimed at the people who will buy them. Real Americans shelling out their hard-earned dollars on travel and pizza and medications and cosmetics. The copy ad folks don’t guess. They have researchers who tell them “THESE are the people buying your product.” People of all ethnicities and genders and ages and backgrounds. I’m not a consumer of slot machines on cell phones or Caribbean trips or tortilla chips but I freely admit I will buy the laundry detergent from the company who show every member of a “mixed” family sniffing the towels!
I have no idea why there is such a disconnect with politicians who are determined to separate us and make us fear anyone who doesn’t look, speak, think, or act the same way we do. That’s NOT this nation. It took centuries and strife and pain and bloodshed to get to this point and we're nowhere near where we should be. Somehow we have “leaders” with mindsets back in the 1800s.
Currently, I’m home-bound but when I was hitting the grocery store weekly I was always heartened by the diversity on display. The 30-ish produce manager would be wearing a hijab while the guy behind the fish counter pinned his yarmulke to his graying hair. A middle-aged black lady would be at counter three and a white kid in his late teens or early 20s with a community college sweatshirt would check out folks at counter four. The person helping bag groceries was often dealing with mental challenges. Waiting at the bakery, one would stand in line next to the soccer mom with the toddler in the stroller on one side, and the university professor on the other. No one screamed insults or berated another human being for being “different.” Shoppers and employees were like those commercials…real people going about the business of living with no need or desire to stay locked into a sad little word of sameness.
So I keep thinking, "If advertisers know their product makes a better profit when there’s a mix of people in the commercial, there’s hope that politicians will wake up and realize it IS a diverse world we live in and we’re all so much richer because of those differences."
I’m not naive…I’m well aware that many people believe it’s 1826 or even 1926. They are so lost they want to go back to those years of hell. There’s a ton of work to be done to penetrate ugly minds filled with unreasonable hatred.
But I have hope that there are enough of us who believe in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s profound words and dream that one day this nation will judge people, not by the color of their skin (or their gender identity) but by the content of their character.
Perhaps when the current crop of phony leaders and con artists who have zero character, are finally gone, this entire nation can join the advertisers and celebrate diversity.
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