Something I have never managed to get my head around, maybe some one can help me understand.
I’m sitting here with a nice glass of rose, ordering some toys online at Toysrus http://www.toysrus.com.tw for my little boy, it’s a great way for me to get some presents to him from all these thousands of miles away … anyway, the main page of the website has a picture of three foreign kids. When I was in TW I saw this kind of thing in the baby magazines and it seems like there is a big call for foreign children as models.
I mean, I can understand it why Taiwanese think foreign kids are cute, and the concept of cute is really important to them. I think oriental kids look cute too. So I can understand the foreign babies and even children being used to model clothes- maybe. But why are they used to advertise things like toys ? On the front page the Toys R Us website, there appear to be mostly foreign/ mixed kids. And these are almost exclusively white kids. This doesn’t exactly represent the real ethnic mix in Taiwan, does it- there are relatively very few white foreigners.
It’s not like the UK where advertising includes the whole ethnic mix because that reflects the reality of our society.
So why are the whities used to promote products ? I’d like someone who has been in TW for a few years to help me understand.