Bob McCarty Writes

After seeing the photo of President Barack Obama trying to enter the White House through a window instead of a door, I was reminded of something from the world of advertising that has troubled me for some time:  Television commercials for home security systems.

The typical home security system commercial shows a bad guy busting down a door or breaking a window at a home owned by a vulnerable person (i.e., a single career woman, an elderly lady or a child home alone).  Because the home is equipped with either a Brink’s or ADT home security system, the commercials always end with the bad guy running away upon hearing sirens activated by the professionally-installed alarm system.

Why do these commercials bother me?  Because, in 7 out of 8 of the spots produced by the nation’s two largest home security systems companies and available on YouTube (see links below), Caucasian men appear as the bad guys committing home invasions.

Am I racist for finding this offensive?  I don’t think so, because crime statistics reported by reputable media outlets seem to back me up:

From 1976 to 2005, blacks committed more than 52% of all murders in America. In 2006, the black arrest rate for most crimes was two to nearly three times blacks’ representation in the population. Blacks constituted 39.3% of all violent-crime arrests, including 56.3% of all robbery and 34.5% of all aggravated-assault arrests, and 29.4% of all property-crime arrests. – Investor’s Business Journal article, April 28, 2008

I suspect commercials like these result from either political correctness running amok at ADT and Brink’s or from the fear company executives — and their corporate lawyers — have of being branded as racists by the likes of activists such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Now that prominent Americans like Will Smith have said, “there are racist people who live here, absolutely. But they’re not the majority anymore,” perhaps the so-called “reality” that is so popular in the form of reality television will make its way back into television commercials.

Click on any of the YouTube links below to view ADT and Brink’s commercials showing conclusive examples of Caucasian men being portrayed in television commercials for home security systems as the “bad guys”:

ADT "Firedog"

ADT Home Security “Firedog” — In this ADT spot, the customer had a security system installed after her neighbor was robbed by a Caucasian man.

ADT Home Security “Walked In”

ADT Home Security “Saved”

Brink’s Home Security “Wrong Door”

Brink's "Wrong Door"

Brink’s Home Security “Just To Be Safe”

Brink’s Home Security “First Date”

Brink’s Home Security “Treadmill” — shows two would-be home invaders, both Caucasian.

Brink’s Home Security “New Home” — In this Brink’s spot, it’s impossible to tell whether the culprit is black, white, green or purple.

Editor’s Note: I’ve made inquiries to the media relations folks at both ADT (Ann Lindstrom) and Brink’s (Dave Simon), asking them to explain why the vast majority of their respective companies’ television commercials feature light-skinned and/or Caucasian individuals in contradiction to the crime statistics highlighted above.  As soon as I receive answers from them, I will post an update.

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See also: This post about Home Security products sent to me by Doug Ross@Journal.  It’s hilarious!