Amanda Labrado

Fraser CP 5
#6 Tracks essay
10/8/09
Do ads and commercials today play on the Native American stereotype for humor or effect; do
they go beyond the stereotype?

On a cold November morning in the year 1620, the Mayflower landed in America.

Onboard this ship were 132 passengers that would soon encounter Indians, and stereotype them

based on their actions and appearance.1 These stereotypes are still in use today; although,

nowadays we know more about native culture than we did then. Commercials often use these

stereotypes to their advantage to sell products on television, in a manner that implies we need to

return to the way life used to be or we need to clean up the world around us. Ads and

commercials today play on the N.A. stereotype for humor and effect depending on the audience,

and what is being sold either a product or an idea; Ads and commercials go beyond the

stereotype but only to win over their viewers opinions.

Native American stereotypes in modern television ads and commercials have

disillusioned the American public. When asked what or who a Native American is, the average

American might include one of the following ideas in their response: whooping, teepees,

feathers, peace pipe, chanter, shaman, nature worshiper, or “cool” Indian names.2 Many of these

generalizations come from primary school history lessons, since many teachers do not clarify

that there are modern day Natives and that they act and dress like we do. If they did elucidate,

their explanation of present-day Indians may not have been memorable, for it lacked tangibility;

“When instruction is limited only to history and the study of artifacts, children get the impression

that American Indians […] have disappeared from the world. They fail to learn that American

1 "The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony:1620." RootsWeb.com Home Page. Web. 6 Oct. 2009.
<http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mosmd/index.htm>.

2 "Blue Corn Comics -- The Basic Indian Stereotypes." Blue Corn Comics -- Multicultural comic books
featuring Native Americans. Web. 10 Oct. 2009. <http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stbasics.htm>.
Indians […]--like they themselves--are "real-time" beings.”3 In contemporary society, ads and

commercials support ideologies taught in school like the former, by portraying American Indians

as leather-wearing, nature lovers, who are soft spoken and mellow; because not ALL Indians

share these characteristics, commonly known and used Indian stereotypes have been created. Ads

and commercials displayed today sell their products and ideas by twisting these stereotypes to

draw humor or effect from the visual; oftentimes ads and commercials may even go beyond the

stereotype by adding settings and situations to enhance it, such as the Mac vs. PC commercial.

Apple incorporated’s Mac computer systems are frequently advertised against their

competitor system the PC using two men who live completely opposite lives. The PC

representative leads a busy life while the Mac representative lives relaxed-ly . These

commercials are popularly known as “Mac vs. PC”. In a Mac vs. PC spoof, created by Steven

Judd and Tvli Jacob for a Comedy Short Cuts film competition4, a Native American and a

Caucasian business man are compared and contrasted to prove Macs are better than PCs. In the

spoof, the Native American is stereotypically dressed in traditional attire with moccasins while

the Caucasian male is dressed in a business suit. The commercial seems to assess the lives of the

two, and subsequently the viewer can easily conclude that the Native is morally superior due to

the simplicity with which he lives his life, which is also a stereotype; Modern day natives don’t

live simple lives, their lives are just as industrious as the business man’s. In this commercial,

Natives are seen through the eyes of ignorant modern day Americans. This perspective is more

beneficial to the commercial because Americans can relate to the image presented and realize

3 "Unbiased Teaching about American Indians and Alaska Natives in Elementary Schools. ERIC Digest."
ERICDigests.Org - Providing full-text access to ERIC Digests. Web. 8 Oct. 2009.
<http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9217/indians.htm>.

4 "News From Indian Country - Restless Natives take Manhattan and the film world." News From Indian
Country - Home. Web. 8 Oct. 2009. <http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=1842&Itemid=80>.
that simplicity is better; In effect, the commercial would gain a positive opinion from its

audience and later American’s money as well. The relaxed simple life of the Native American in

the commercial contrasts to that of the business man; consequently, making Americans feel

weary of the way they live. This was the desired effect on the American public because

Americans would buy Macs if they felt they needed to simplify their lives. Another stereotype

used in the Mac vs. PC commercial, which is more commonly used among children than adults,

is that all natives dress as the Indian in the commercial does; Indians only dress as such when

celebrating a traditional Indian holiday or event, otherwise they dress like modern day American

people. People popularly believe natives all dress alike, including modern natives, because it is

how they frequently are portrayed on TV. In this commercial, this stereotype is exaggerated

because two other stereotypes are added to the Indian’s traditional dress to enhance the effect on

the audience. To illustrate “Native culture”, The simplicity of the native’s life and that he is still

angry over the whites taking his land are added on5, for at the end of the commercial the Indian

says “why didn’t we think of that?”.

A commercial that has an entirely different affect on its audience without the use of

enhancements or stereotypes is the public service announcement called “Indians don’t let Indians

Drive Drunk”. This PSA addresses the common Native American stereotype of alcoholism or its

abuse, which is a true stereotype because of a gene that makes Indians vulnerable to the

substance.6 The reason Indian alcoholism can and cannot be called a stereotype in this

commercial is because when applied to the complete population of Indians in the U.S. it is

5 "Blue Corn Comics -- The Harm of Native Stereotyping: Facts and Evidence." Blue Corn Comics --
Multicultural comic books featuring Native Americans. Web. 7 Oct. 2009.
<http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stharm.htm>.

6 "Investigating a 'protective gene' against alcoholism." Science Blog | Science news straight from the
source. Web. 6 Oct. 2009. <http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2001/A/200110248.html>.
untrue, but when applied to a couple Indian tribes or groups it becomes accurate7. “Indians don’t

let Indians drive drunk” is aimed at solely Natives, and more likely was not seen by any other

group; Therefore, Natives would have seen it with understanding eyes rather than the

stereotypical eyes of the Caucasian that would not relate to it in the same way as Indians. This

commercial is presented in a way that would affect the Native community’s opinions in order to

persuade them to care for each other’s health and change their feelings on alcoholism. Indians

might also possibly react to this commercial in a more blameful way, such as being mad at white

men for bringing their culture and products into their world causing Indians all the hardships

they face today8; however, only older Indians might think this way if they were still sour about

the loss of their lands. This commercial or PSA does not go beyond a stereotype, it enhances a

stereotype by giving familiar scenes to its viewers for effect.

During the 1970’s, the Keep America Beautiful Foundation came out with a Public

Service Announcement that concerned pollution. The PSA was released in an attempt to

convince Americans to stop polluting. In this commercial, an Italian male, dressed as an

American Indian, rode a horse through a spring in California littered with human waste products.

At the conclusion of the commercial, the Indian dropped a single tear. For years this was seen as

powerful, possibly because it was an “Indian” crying over how destroyed the land became after

white people conquered it, even though reservations look even worse. Anyways, the point is that

the Native American apparel was a gimmick. It was a stereotype. Native Americans would more

likely be crying over the fact that they had such small land allotments rather than the fact that the

land that is no longer theirs is contaminated just as much as the land they own. This stereotype

7 "Investigating a 'protective gene' against alcoholism." Science Blog | Science news straight from the
source. Web. 6 Oct. 2009. <http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2001/A/200110248.html>.

8 "Yahoo! Groups." Yahoo! Groups - Join or create groups, clubs, forums & communities. Web. 6 Oct.
2009. <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews/message/35550>.
would be taken in offense due to these facts, and it is apparent that the Indian garb was used for

effect rather than humor. The Indian dress was not enhanced or exaggerated by any other

additions to the commercial besides the horse that the Indian was riding; a modern day native

would more likely be driving a car rather than a horse. The horse factor would also be taken as

insulting, because an American might assume that all Indians ride horses since Americans are

easily influenced by television, especially the younger generation.