We love the romantic pretense of a homogenous, melting-pot America. It makes us feel good, gives us a sense of nobility and brings closure to our well-documented history of discriminating against one another in every way that it is possible for humans to discriminate -- race, class, ethnicity, religion, gender, geography, sexual preference.
We've codified this politesse in various advertising campaigns, many of which follow a set formula -- a woman here, man there, black person there, Asian here, Latino there.
"Look," the advertisements seem to say. "We're being fair. We've included everybody. Buy from us."
But a new approach to marketing says that the seemingly inclusive ads are nonsense, poppycock, almost as offensive as the advertising campaigns of old that portrayed all wholesome families as white and all breadwinners as white men.
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