Leaping Culture Gaps

One night I was falling asleep with the TV on and I heard a commercial for "Elmo's Tickle Hands"...which is a strange product in and of itself, but what really sparked my half-asleep mind was the very end of the commercial, when Elmo shouted "Yeaaahhhh, boooooooiii". I wasn't sure I had heard it right, so I looked up the commercial on Youtube the next day, and sure enough, there was Elmo quoting Flavor Flav.

Once I noticed this first instance of hip-hop culture in children's advertising, I started seeing the same cultural leap in other places. I actually found out that Chris Brown was a guest on Sesame Street, although the episode is no longer showing on cable because of Brown's arrest.




Around the time that I first noticed the Elmo commercial, a video started spreading across the internet of a baby dancing to Beyonce. I also come across this video of two young children dancing to T-Pain's song Low.

I find it truly entertaining that Elmo says things like "Yeah Boi" and his audience of toddlers doesn't think anything of it. I love the fact that in today's society it is easy to cross even the most opposite of cultures in modern media!

Stereotypes Through the Ages

A few weeks ago, I was watching The Breakfast Club with my cousin. I got to thinking about all of the stereotypes portrayed in the movie:


I thought each of these people seemed so timeless and so relate-able to every person's high school experience. But when I really started to think about it, I figured that these stereotypes certainly were prevalent in 1985, I don't think they necessarily still apply today, at least not with the same terminology.

Have new, modern stereotypes replaced the classic five-some of The Breakfast Club?


Later in the week, with the concept of modern stereotypes on my mind, I noticed the overwhelming existence of hipsters. So, I did some reading around. One blog gave a detailed, definite description of the characteristics of a hipster, including drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, listening to Indie Rock music, and just being all around non-mainstream. Actually, an article in Advertising Age, proclaims that sales of PBR have increased due to the "word of mouth campaign that made the long-declining brand an "ironic downscale chic" choice for... younger drinkers who viewed the beer as a statement of non-mainstream taste."

Also, there is a popular "hipster spotting" webiste, "Look at this F***ing Hipster", where hipster-haters can post pictures of extreme hipsters. Here is an image of what "stereotypical" hispters look like:




Another modern stereotype that has caught my attention is that of a bro. Bros is defined on urbandictionary.com as "an alpha male idiot...white, 16-25 years old, inarticulate, belligerant, talks about nothing but chicks and beers..." the list of compliments goes on. Living on a college campus, I am exposed to a lot of "white 16-25 year olds" and have come across many "bros". From my point of view, this description is fairly accurate. However, to a true bro, being considered such is not at all a bad thing -- They are proud of their "bromance". MTV briefly produced a show entitled Bromance in which men had to compete to become Brody Jenner's best friend (or bro).




All in all, times change, so why wouldn't stereotypes? While The Breakfast Club will remain a classic movie, I believe that the era of the "kook" has ended.