Pantene's Stereotypical Commercial

The Pantene commercial included many racial and gender stereotypes.  When watching the commercial these stereotypes were not very obvious, but after analyzing the commercial one gets angry about the awful stereotypes that it includes.  The most obvious gender stereotype included in it was that girls, especially highschool girls, are catty.  The jealousy that the "rich" pianist had towards the apparently "poor" violinist was very Mean Girls-esqupe and an incredibly common stereotype about young girls. Another theme that the commercial had was the stereotype of a helpless girl crying about not being able to do something.  The deaf violinist is portrayed as a helpless girl with no family that has to be "saved" by a fairytale "Prince Charming" MALE character.  The "Prince Charming" is the street violinist who teaches her how to play the violin.  This scenario is a common one that is heavily shown in Disney movies.  In almost all Disney movies the princess' parents are not alive/around and a male figure saves them from some awful fate.  This stereotype that a girl always needs help from a guy is also apparent when the group of boys break her violin.  This was probably set up by the mean pianist to jeopardize the violinist in the classical music competition.  It is so terribly predictable in films and literature for a girl's older boyfriend or brother to help her by beating up someone else.  This stereotype is also a good marketing tool for Pantene because it states that girls need help from males in life to overcome obstacles, and they need help from Pantene products to overcome bad hair.

The racial stereotypes in this commercial were very offensive towards Asians.  First of all, the commercial was subtitled, but it was actually meant for Americans to see.  Because of this all of the racial stereotypes included in the commercial were meant to be stereotypical.  The first stereotype was that all Asian females are subservient and obedient of men.  This reiterates the "helpless girl" stereotype.  This is a sad and untrue stereotype because that is not at all how most cultures think nowadays.  A second theme is that Asians only play classical music.  The fact that the girls are playing classical instruments and music makes the watcher think that classical music is more popular than any other type of music in Asia which is untrue.  That is a very old stereotype that does not fit with the modern world.  Lastly, Pantene has specifically chosen Asians to be the characters in their commercial because Pantene feels as though all females desire long, straight "Asian hair."  This is an assumption that makes Asians seem like puppets only wanted in this commercial for their hair.  All of these stereotypes were used solely for Pantene to sell their product, which is wrong.