Disgust - The Reform party Racist Sarah Pochlin

Aveline

Sticking my head above the parapet - I agree with her. She's quite right. The statistics clearly show that the over representation of ethnic minorities in mainstream TV adverts is true. It does irritate me because it's just so formulaic and predictable. Like the advertising agencies have to have a certain set number of ethnicities per advert. It's the same on all game shows.

Very true.
Too many people going overboard on here to try and say the opposite with cries of racism.
There isn’t a single racist comment on here or from Pochin but just an observation of fact, that black and Asian people are over represented in tv ads.I expect it will find the right level given time but everyone is so scared of the racist label that they fall over backwards to show that they aren’t, and the ad business is no exception.

Agree with Oreo, as do many people I know. Tired of having the issue of integration being rammed down our throats. Had to switch five live off today as felt the programme featured mainly contributers who deemed anyone supporting this Reform person as racist

I’m Asian and I noticed that too. There is an over representation of black and South Asian people in television adverts which is not representative of the UK population.

I believe this is subtle brainwashing related to woke policies which touches on feminism and rights of ethnic minorities.

The ones I hate most are the feminist adverts that portray men as idiots.

Please explain how the sample I gave above - 9 consecutive adverts from ITV and Channel 4 - all of which featured all or some white people, accord with Pochin's claim that I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people, full of anything other than white.

Because Paynes Grey you just took a sample of ads from a certain time of the day and not from all channels I expect.
While Pochin was certainly exaggerating she wasn’t wrong about the over representation of the ads of non white people in a predominantly white country.
People must be allowed to comment on this fact without the cries of racism.
It’s very good that they are represented as we’re a multicultural society without it becoming OTT.That it must be, as many in the country are commenting on it.

Maremia

Not racist? Seriously?
How bad would it have to be, to be called racist?

Agree.
It is racist.

I explained where I took it from. ITV and Channel 4 - the two most watched free-to-air channels. Nine consecutive ads for pizza, banking, carpet cleaning etc etc, all explained upthread.

Every one of them featured all white or a mix of ethnicites. Not one featured all black or all Asian. How is that OTT?

I am not disputing that ads exist which feature a black family eating together or an Asian family having a party but why not? Other ethnicities eat and celebrate.

Ads are about selling products to everyone. Pochin complains: how many times do you look at a TV advert and think there’s not a single white person on it … people will switch off.

Really? Would anyone sitting watching Corrie or Gogglebox switch off if there was an ad showing a black family at the supermarket? I doubt it.

She's doing what Reform love to do. Incite. It's all they have.

Is that the first time she has made such a comment? Or does she have form?

Pochin was replying to a radio phone in and it was the caller who brought this up and not her.
I do wonder if a Labour MP or any other had answered with honesty ( admittedly exaggeration) as she did there would be so much outrage.We always complain about politicians lying or being so diplomatic that we don’t know their true thoughts and when somebody says ‘yes, there’s over representation’ or words to that effect we clutch our pearls.
She did phrase it badly but the truth is out there!

Don't fall for the rhetoric.

SP has changed political elligence at least 3 times I believe.

Do you think she cares about what she says? She is a career politician, ergo she wad probably told exactly what to say.

Be careful not to swallow the click bait hook line and sinker.

Sitting in our ideological silos, firing word salads at each other, we are easier to manipulate.

She may well be a career politician, many are, or care about what she says but that doesn’t make her wrong.
I doubt she was told what to say or she would have said it better.

She phrased it badly?

Yes

Oreo

She may well be a career politician, many are, or care about what she says but that doesn’t make her wrong.
I doubt she was told what to say or she would have said it better.

My post fell underneath yours Oreo, but it wasn't directed specifically towards you 😊

My point being it doesn't matter if she's right or wrong.
We need to look more at who is manipulating us through our politicians, and why.

Let's have a wee bit of sunny, Monday afternoon fun.
A competition, and you are all welcome to try.

Who can 'better phrase' her comments, so that they cannot be accused of being racist?

Gosh, I can't think of anything.

More than half the country will agree with her but won’t say anything.

Well, there is a lot of racism in the country.

youtube.com/watch?v=W9kZ4jRn2eU&si=j9pg0AVrTTArbt1s
It’s a problem that’s been around a long time,
Racism like a lot of things comes down the generations.Seems it has always been that way way.
My great gf and his brothers were on the stage at the time when boarding houses has notices on their windows saying no Irish ,No Blacks no dogs.
Surely we’ve moved on from that attitude by now?

I can better rephrase it.
She could have said ‘you’re quite right caller, there’s a definite over representation of black and Asian people in ads on tv right now, and although it’s good to show that we are a multicultural country this could make the predominantly white British majority in the UK feel uneasy as if they were not wanted anymore simply for being white.Companies who pay for these ads are worried that if they don’t show black, Asian or mixed race families their companies will be accused of being racist so they all or nearly all do it which gives this over representation message.In time I hope this will settle down and be more proportional.’

Surveys suggest about 25% to 30% of UK citizens have racist attitudes.

Just over half of 18-24 year olds think there is a great deal of racism in the UK today - 32% of 65+ year olds think there is a great deal of racism.

www.statista.com/statistics/1123258/opinion-on-racism-in-uk-by-age/

I believe that compared to lots of European countries we are a very tolerant and non racist country.

Walk round any small town in our county and you would be very hard pressed to find a non white person so I agree that they are over represented in TV adverts.

People notice things like this - just the same as on Coronation Street where gay people are massively over represented. Can’t see anything wrong in passing comment.

Starmer is just getting his knickers in a twist about this to deflect from Labour’s massive prison cock up in the last few days.

Or she could have mentioned that the advertisers want people of all ethnic backgrounds to buy their goods.

It's Ms Pochin who is out-of-step. Her constituency (Runcorn and Helsby) is one of the whitest in the whole country. In the latest census 96.6% identified as white British.

That area of the north west (on the edge of the Wirral and Mesreyside) has a lower percentage of ethnic minorities than many others in Lancashire and Yorkshire. It does, however, have a high percentage of people with Irish backgrounds. The theory is that Irish immigrants did the kind of low paid jobs often done by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies and sub-Saharan Africans.

Further to my evidencial post upthread, I maintain that the way to counter Reform misinformation is to show they are not speaking the truth.

Over lunch, I played back a programme I recorded on Sky Arts yesterday evening. These were the ad breaks:

• Sensodyne. Pale-black-skinned female dentist.
• SCS Sofas and Beds. Male and female. Five white, one black.
• Currys. Male and female. Eight white, one black.
• Vinted. White couple, two white children.
• EE Sim cards. One male white teenager in foreground, pupils in background of different ethnicities.
• F&F Clothes. One white woman.
• Voltarol. One white male with white son skateboarding.
• Lexus. White female driver.
• Corsodyl. Two white women.
• AA. One white male, one pale=black-skinned woman.
• Disneyland. Family. White mother, black father, two mixed race children.
• BMW. Four drivers from past international campaigns. Male and female, different ethnicities.
• Age UK. Range of old people suffering, male and female, different ethnicities, White female call handler.
• Ladbrokes. White male skydiver
• Muller Rice. White female teacher
• McDonalds. Three white people staging a burger heist
• 32 Red. White male.

Where is this non-representative saturation of black and brown-skinned people in adverts that Pochin is seeing and getting mad about, because the samples I have taken from ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Arts today show a very different picture.

Well advertising might be trying to set the record straight by representing more British groups who are black or South Asian but there is a marked under representation in many highly paid and more prestigious careers where being white still means being accepted.
I am more than glad to see more opportunities open up for those who have had so many doors slammed in their faces before. My own children and GCs are not white British so any steps made towards more inclusivity is welcome.
Those who don’t like it for whatever reason might want to say why it is so disagreeable, without falling into the trap of being racist.
And without making out this is some kind of WOKE conspiracy to get at white people.
Honestly, I thought we had progressed from this kind of conversation decades ago.