Monday, March 12, 2012

Thoughts on DirecTV's attacks on "Undesirable" Gothic people?

If you haven't been under a rock of late, then you've probably come across DirecTV's blatant attack ads that seem pretty targeted at Goths.  Labeling a young man who has all the accoutrements of many in our community as an "undesirable" is pretty appalling, but more so is the fact that we in the Gothic community are so splintered that the ad hasn't been pulled.  We're a safe target because, unlike most minorities, we won't protest en masse. 

Try to imagine DirecTV replaced the Goth with a black man, labeling him as "undesirable"?  The NAACP would proclaim DirecTV were racist Neo-Nazis and the public outcry would reach a fever pitch.  Likewise if it had been a lesbian, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force would have had someone's nether regions in a sling over the slight.



So, what do you think about it?  Let's talk about it here and be open and honest!  If it offends you, then bombard DirecTV's facebook and YouTube and Twitter pages and let them know about it. 

3 comments:

  1. Hey guys,

    I'm not actually goth, but I really respect your movement. I hadn't heard much outcry in the Gothic community about this ad before now, so I had thought it was somehow okay. That's stupid, I know. Anyway, I think you're right that no other minority could get away with being singled out like that.

    As such, I did a little research. The person you want to contact at DirecTV is their PR people. The head of PR is the person who is supposed to redlight things that marketing is doing if they believe it'll piss off the public. If he let it get through, then either he got over-ruled, or he didn't think you guys would do anything about it. (Like in fight club about the car recalls vs. the cost of settlements.) The good thing is that, either way, he can usually make sure the plug gets pulled if he personally gets enough flack. Just remember to be polite but firm, because it's possible that he was against it and someone else over-ruled him.

    A quick google search shows that you want to email Robert Mercer (DirecTV's PR Director) at:
    Rgmercer@directv.com

    -Fred K.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that was a funny commercial, and IMO taking offence of a joke such as this is a sure sign that somebody needs to grow a thicker skin. I mean, isn't one of the best qualities of the goth subculture our ability to laugh at ourselves? And since when was calling a counter-culture "undesirable" by a mainstream commercial a bad thing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. There's no question about an ability to laugh at oneself being necessary! *smile* The issue that I note is the fact that it's not making fun of a funny element about a specific type of society, it's degrading a part of the society that is different because it CAN.

    Most of us have been outcast for much of our lives and we wear our outcast-ness like a badge of honor. The problem is that the more we own being outcast as the way things will "always be," the more we keep ourselves outcast from one another. We splinter into sub-sub-genres of a subculture, until we can't move to defend ourselves.

    At the end of the day, my challenge is simply that we come together and ask for the sort of dignity that any other sub-culture is afforded. Common human dignity, regardless of what we look like or how we dress or how we see the world.

    ReplyDelete