Yesterday at the doctor's office, flipping thru magazines on the table, I was surprised to see a full page Tylenol ad on the back page of an AARP magazine. The text said something like "when you have the grandkids for the weekend." It showed an elderly person holding the hand of a kid. In the kids other hand was an ice cream cone, and on his head was an Indian headdress with multi-colored feathers. The kid was not Native.
Parents use the "stop acting like a wild Indian" phrase when their kids are out of control, but I haven't seen it in an advertisement before. I have occasionally come across it in children's books.
AARP is a huge and powerful organization. There's a lot of people out there who get their magazines. I haven't heard any protest to the ad. Have you? Why not?
Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016.
5 comments:
I'm truly shocked. In fact, AARP is gonna hear from me about it. Sheesh. Didn't you begin to think those days of stereotyping were behind us? That's the kind of stuff that make me feel so surprised and ashamed of my fellow people who still are that way. And I'm definitely thankful to be living in Dinetah, and learning right ways every day: really living with a sense of liberty and justice for all, especially among the children. Being an adult in America is a continual process of facing up to the truths about this nation that I never learned as a child in the Land of Blackhawk.
This nagged at me too much, so I sent a message to the publications division of AARP. I included your comment in quotes:
I was shocked to find out that there is an ad in your magazine that perpetuates the idea of Native American Indians as "wild indians". To be exact, this is what I heard:
"Yesterday at the doctor's office, flipping thru magazines on the table, I was surprised to see a full page Tylenol ad on the back page of an AARP magazine. The text said something like "when you have the grandkids for the weekend." It showed an elderly person holding the hand of a kid. In the kids other hand was an ice cream cone, and on his head was an Indian headdress with multi-colored feathers. The kid was not Native."
Could you please take time to discourage any future portrayals of Native people in your magazine? This kind of stereotyping really hurts the feelings of so many people!
Thank you.
Wish I could have sent it 10,000 times.
A colleague found the ad, but it is different than I remember. Go here to see it and scroll down.
http://themarigoldtrail.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_themarigoldtrail_archive.html
The difference in my memory and this ad is the elder in the ad. When I looked at this image today, I saw the man's arm---its darker than I recall from yesterday.
Is he intended to be Indian?
If he is, and the kid is too, does it make a difference? If yes, what kind of difference?
Did I see a different ad? Would AARP run THIS ad on its magazine cover? In an appeal to reflect/appeal to its Native readers? Seems to me a huge error on the part of their PR and marketing team. I'm making a huge generalization here, but I don't think a Native kid would wear one of these fake headdresses.
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/286/3622/320/tylenol.jpg
Here's another way (hopefully) to see the image.
And lets not forget the culpability of Tylenol and the advertising group that created this. Obviously, AARP needs to hear from people for running the offensive advertisement, but so do the others who are responsibile.
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