OFFENSIVE stereotypes: the lazy Mexican, the cheap Jew, the drunk Irishman,
the dangerous African American.

They are broad-brush depictions that make DECENT people shudder!!!!!!!

But Madison Avenue TOLERATES a dwindling number of stereotypes.
GAYS are still fair game. BLONDES rarely stand a chance.

And then there are ITALIANS, and the seemingly irresistible desire to paint them as
silk-suit-wearing, pinky-ring-waving, New Joisey-talking GALOOTS with a penchant for violence.
=========================================================
Thanks to IAOV member Frank Gencarelli

RUB OUT THOSE ADS THAT SPOOF THE MOB

Hartford Courant
By Matthew Kauffman
May 28, 2003

There's a new TV ad for Prestone that features a timid man innocently washing his car until he is confronted by two imposing Italian Mafiosi in dark suits.

In Gag No. 1, one of the mobsters clicks open a briefcase - and here we're supposed to fear that the timid man is about to be shot to death in his driveway. But, big relief, the briefcase merely holds some Prestone tire cleaner.

In Gag No. 2, a dog briefly considers urinating on the timid man's wheels, but turns tail and runs when the hit men reach menacingly into their suit jackets.

"Smart dog," one mobster says.

"Lucky dog," the other replies.

Ah, the Italian mobster motif. How original.

Madison Avenue tolerates a dwindling number of stereotypes. Gays are still fair game. Blondes rarely stand a chance. And then there are Italians, and the seemingly irresistible desire to paint them as silk-suit-wearing, pinky-ring-waving, New Joisey-talking galoots with a penchant for violence.

"It's horrible," says Roy L. De Barbieri, a lawyer in New Haven and the Connecticut area coordinator for the National Italian American Foundation. "In 2003, it's absolutely incredible that people have such low ideas about an ethnic group."

But those ideas are rampant in the ad world. Coca-Cola introduced Vanilla Coke with a creepy ad campaign in which a mobster snatches curious people off the street - and then rewards them for their curiosity with a bottle of pop. It's irrelevant to the brand, but how 'bout that Italian accent!

A few years back, a Diet Dr Pepper spot featured wiseguys in a game show parody called "Crime Family Feud." "Name a popular family activity," the host intones. And the No. 1 answer? "Racketeering."

The examples run on and on. Eclipse gum used hit men and the tagline "Die, bad breath. Die." Red Lobster ordered up a spot with mobsters titled "Breakin' Legs." A national driving school ran with a gag about a hooked-up instructor asking his young charge for help with a body in the trunk.

And AT&T ran a spot featuring an actor from "The Sopranos" who threatens a high school teacher on behalf of a kid who failed to turn in a science project.

That last one was an especially sore point with some Italian Americans, who blame The Sopranos for the latest run of mobbed-up commercials. Although most critics and viewers adore the HBO series, a number of Italian American groups just despise it.

In Chicago, a group even filed a novel lawsuit seeking a declaration that the show violates the state constitution's "Individual Dignity Clause," which condemns the portrayal of particular groups as criminals.

The suit went nowhere. But it was always a symbolic act, more likely to generate publicity than a favorable ruling. Still, it's a message worth hearing: that cheap shots in entertainment and advertising are just that - cheap.

This is not a plea for runaway political correctness and the blandness it engenders. More than a decade ago, Adweek magazine lamented that creativity in advertising was being jeopardized by a paralyzing fear of hurting somebody's feelings. Honda, the magazine noted, was trying to keep humans out of its ads altogether rather than risk offending some group.

That's silly. But the fact that it may be difficult to navigate the sensitivities of consumers doesn't mean advertisers shouldn't try.

Setting the bar can, indeed, be tough. De Barbieri hates the Alka-Seltzer ad in which a television pitchman keeps flubbing his line, "Mama Mia! That's a spicy meatball!" (The ad's a classic, but it didn't run long, pulled off the air after Italian Americans complained.) He's horrified by another ad featuring "ill-kempt and fat" Italian women doing cartwheels over Ragu's spaghetti sauce. And don't get him started on the accents in the Olive Garden restaurant ads.

Me, I'm not especially bothered by those. All three certainly supersize the cliches, but, to me, there's nothing particularly mean-spirited or demeaning about, say, the stereotype of Italian grandmothers as whizzes in the kitchen.

But wrestling over the propriety of those iffy portrayals is a far cry from routinely endorsing the image of Italian Americans as violent gangsters.

"Could you imagine anyone opening a `Black Sambo's Chicken Shack?'" De Barbieri asks. "You couldn't get away with that for one day. But everyone thinks it's OK to use Italian American negative stereotypes."

Society is astonishingly adept at doling out offensive stereotypes: the lazy Mexican, the cheap Jew, the drunk Irishman, the dangerous African American. They are broad-brush depictions that make decent people shudder. And you're not likely to find them in mainstream ads.

So what is it that makes the stereotype of the violent Italian so embraceable?

Note to marketers: Next time you're tempted to reach for the well worn image of the Italian mobster, think about the message you're sending to customers. Think about the reception that ad may get from Italian American consumers.

And then fuhgeddaboutit.

E-mail: kauffman@courant.com

Rub out those Ads that Spoof the Mob
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