Cingular Wireless, the “new AT & T”, is running a commercial that features a young man on the phone with his future father in law, whose name is Jim. The father states, “I hope you can think of us as buddies.” The young man replies, “o.k. Jim, Jimbo, Jimmy boy, the Jimster” and then proceeds to break into the song “Jimmy Crack Corn”. The shot of the young man cuts at the line, “Jimmy Crack Corn and I don’t care”, back to Jim smiling saying something we don’t hear because the call has dropped. The young man believing he’s gone to far in his friendliness saying, “ah Jim”. The commercial cuts to the phrase, “A dropped call can ruin a conversation.” The last shot is of the young man saying, “Jim, I mean Mr. McDermott.” Cingular asks us to “switch to the network with fewest dropped calls”.
For awhile every time I saw this commercial, I reacted in disbelief. Future showings of the commercial had me running across the room for the remote. Why the severe reaction? I couldn’t believe the commercial was using an old minstrel song to make a point about dropped calls (I would note later others commandeered it and labeled it a folk song). I am curious to know, what made this young character, who is white, sing such an old song? A song, I would presume his generation probably never ever heard growing up (Note again, I am wrong about this too…apparently the song is taught to school children). I was disturb because the lyrics depending on a persons interpretation has mixed meanings. It could be a song about slaves seeking revenge on their master, it might gave been a protest song to abolitionist, an uplifting song for the slaves, and interpretations continue. I think hearing the use of the word “Jimbo” seemed to trigger the word “Sambo” (a negative connotation towards dark skinned people), the words “Jimmy boy” made me think of the negative connotation of the word “boy” when by white southerners, and luckily the word “Jimster” only reminded me of an old Saturday Night Live skit featuring Sting, in which the character proceeds to say “Stinger”, “Stinger ronni”, “Sting man” and so on. The fact, the commercial cuts to another scene before he completes the line with “my massa’s gone away” is a sign the creators knew they were close to crossing a very dangerous line.
I wondered was I the only one to be disturbed by this commercial. Where are the protest from the NACCP? What were the ad people thinking and why develop such a commercial? Where’s Dave Chappelle with a comeback to bring balance. I could only conclude we’ve become to desensitized and we lack understanding of history and its relevancy to today’s culture. It also probably doesn’t help that rappers and various other people have adopted the song further aiding in a lost understanding of the songs meaning which has various interpretations.
What do you think? Should people protest AT & T. Should this commercial have aired? Did they creators cross the line?
Check out the commercial and what some others say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqeMZh1WJs4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Crack_Corn
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a981030.html
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6 comments:
Hmmm, honestly, would ever have occured to me, and my guess is that you are reading too much into it. I certainly do not mean that as an insult, nor to diminish the fact that it might send a negative messsage to some people. I remember hearing that song as a kid too, but I guess when I see the commercial, i had never finished out the line in my head until you brought it up. I think the Jimbo/Sambo thing is a real stretch, as Jimbo is a common nickname for Jim. Maybe I am not being sensitive enough, but my guess is that such a big company would never put out an add with that vibe in mind, and my guess is that most people did not catch it...at least I hope!
No insult taken that's the beauty of being able to discuss potentially sensitive topics. I am however intrigued by your response enough to ask my Social Psychologist professor for analysis of the commercial and I would also be curious to know how a linguist would analysis the use of the commercials use of words.
I think, if in fact their is racism in the commercial, it's very subtle. It would also be interesting to know how the company would respond if asked why they didn't complete the full line of the song.
Lastly your probably right the Jimbo/Sambo thing may be a stretch but we must consider images and words mean different things to different cultures in particular the ones who are less dominant in our society.
I think you are on to something. I have seen the ads and I did not notice the subtlties of the commercial (I try to tune ads out). After viewing the ad since I read your post I now see if you are African American and from the south that the choice of words are appalling. If the poor choice of words was unintentional the company needs to address the mistake and make an apology to anyone they may have offended. A sensitive topic but worthy of discussion. I find it interesting that the other "dropped call ad" running at the same time was clearly aimed at a young adult, black audience. I would love to hear what your social psych professor thinks about it.
I didn't even realize it. I guess you bring up a good point but I don't think they were trying to affend anyone. Personally when I see the commercials for the new AT&T it makes me upset. For Cingular used to be AT&T and then AT&T were bought out by Cingular so I had to finally sign up with Cingular and ever since that my cell service is terrible.
But then again I guess I am a little happy that AT&T is coming back for their service was a lot better but I think it't messed up how they left and just a few years later their back again? I wonder what is really going on with the companies.
I don't know how this post turned into how Cingular’s coverage is?
I can see your point and even though I didn't catch it because I to tune commercials out there is a definite underlying insensitivity in the commercial. My hope is that this company was too dense to catch it themselves. I am not sure if I can draw the conclusion that they are outright racist. They do have a responsibility to their current customers, the millions watching, and their shareholders to not offend people in that way. This defiantly should be brought to the company’s attention, but as far as full blown protests I think that there might be bigger issues to fight first. Thank you bringing it to our attention though. I think the commercial could be a reflection of how we can be insensitive in our own daily lives.
I think that there lies a potential for sensitivity with this commercial. It could just be an old folk song, Jimbo could be regional nickname, and the editing could just be to dramatize the reaction of a dropped call; but then again we weren’t in the writers room when the concept was pitched. I find the level of sensitivity to political correctness in our country to have reached an almost frenzy. I have been known to use the wrong word on occasion, not in a politically charged way more just like a “brain fart” sort of way, and I have developed a toughness so that when it happens with others I don’t jump to the worst conclusion. I do realize though that the sensitivity was cultivated in a culture of intentional offense. I see these sorts of arguable/ debatable instances on a daily basis, I look forward to the day when I don’t because we’ve either all evolved together into a state of mutual respect; or they just don’t occur because we’ve established well followed language barriers.
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