In “Dirty Jobs, Done Dirt Cheap,” Gabriel Winant discusses several reality TV programs that focus on blue-collar jobs. Near the end of the essay, Winant notes similarities between such TV shows and ad campaigns for companies like Walmart and Levis that feature blue-collar work (Winant, 70-71). Consider the following commercials. How are capitalism, blue-collar work, and the American Dream represented in these commercials? Winant sees such commercials as highly objectionable. What do you think?
Walmart, “Work is a beautiful thing” (2014):
Levis: “Go forth and work” (2010):
April 24, 2019 at 2:42 pm
I agree with Winant’s assertion that Levi’s and Walmart’s respective portrayals of blue-collar jobs are highly objectionable. We have long established that the premise of the historical glorification of undertaking meaningful work to achieve the American Dream is false, as it has only been accessible to a highly select few who already reap the rewards of systemic inequality, if anyone at all.
Walmart’s ads struck me as particularly hypocritical, asserting that their provision of opportunities, whether in the case of a job for Jon or a partnership with Burt, were in fact uplifting these people and helped them turn around their lives and achieve their dreams. Walmart would fall apart without its employees and partners, yet it casts these individuals in the light of essentially receiving charity from Walmart, like Walmart is doing them some kind of favour and giving back to them. Yet these weren’t ads for the Walton foundation, the charitable association linked with the company, no, they were ads for Walmart itself. Walmart is amongst the most profitable corporations in America, and their well-documented practices of exploitative labour remain unchallenged. They throw around the number of $250 billion being invested in products that support American jobs over the next 10 years, but this incredible investment is only achievable through their vast profit margins that rely on hard labour that is cheap in cost. Suggesting that Walmart helps make the American dream possible for the people its associated with is proposterous, just ask the hundreds of thousands of Walmart employees who can barely afford to pay their bills.
Levi’s ad is also highly misleading. Their assertion that they are responsible for rebuilding what was once broken through providing manufacturing jobs to a town in Pennsylvania with a multi-racial lens is deeply flawed. Levi’s is yet another example of a company the lobbies for immense tax cuts only to not reinvest in their personnel, but instead in themselves and the creation of profit. This is just another example of a company that believes that it is doing people a service by providing them with employment, instead of appreciating what their employees contribute to them and compensating said employees justly for their efforts. The dispensability of labour and the saviour complex adopted by profiteering corporations is a smack to the face of the American worker. The scene where little boys look up to see a pair of hanging jeans is deeply saddening, because it implies that these jeans alone are what will somehow rebuild broken communities.
April 24, 2019 at 12:23 pm
My intial reaction to these advertisemets was that these ads are doing what they are intended to do. Ads for any product do not show reality, they show what will sell and what will make them money. These ads create an image that corporate america is saving the world one blue-collar worker at a time. It follows success stories that only credit the walmarts of the world, and ignores all the inqualities and mistreatments of the lower-wage workers often face. The first ad follows a seemlingly helpless military veteran who cannot find a job, but Walmart comes and saves the day. Advertising a Military veteran heightens the success story as the average american will always desire all good to come to those who serve. The second is not a military vet, but a working class man who brings employment to his town. His proudly announces his payroll lwas 150 million, but not without the help of Walmart, which is made clear in the add. Walmart is using these american success stories to build their brand. Another example of corporate America controlling the economy and forgetting about the everyday american actually doing the labor.
April 24, 2019 at 11:46 am
In the first commercial, Meet Jon, the American Dream is glorified without mention of any of the complications or drawbacks to capitalism in America. Jon’s return from deployment overseas is largely brushed over and it ignores the struggles that veterans face looking for work. It is also unclear the skill level required for Jon’s new job, and it might be difficult to tell if his experience can relate to many out-of-work veterans with few transferable skills. The way Jon talks about the American Dream strongly exemplifies what Winant describes as a “ventriloquized working class (pg. 71)” that is not realistic to what people are actually doing or feeling. Walmart’s entire “work is a beautiful thing” campaign showcases the American Dream and capitalism as ideal and possible for anyone, when really the stories of Jon and Burt are accompanied by many more stories of failure, injustice, inequality, and immobility. Winant notes the hypocrisy of such campaigns by Walmart especially, a company that he says has contributed to the “degradation of work” and growing inequality and unsuitable working conditions.
The third commercial, Levi’s “Go Forth,” is mentioned specifically in Winant’s essay. The commercial shamelessly uses the hardships of globalization/the decline of manufacturing and maybe even the Great Recession to sell its product, vaguely pledging allegiance to some patriotic cause that we are supposed to infer from its imagery but of which it makes no clear mention. To say, “a long time ago, things got broken here. People got sad and left. Maybe the world breaks on purpose so we can have work to do,” is a gross oversimplification and massaging of what really happened in America from the 70’s onward, and from 2008 onward. To apologize for the country leaving its least privileged workers in the dust and then adding that to the collapse of the housing market perpetrated by lax banking regulations does not equal saying: we have work to do, so let’s get to it. Levi’s is glorifying a particular kind of work just because they are an American company but is using these images to sell a product to people while ignoring the tragedies that really happened. I agree with Winant that media portrayals like this are patronizing and tone-deaf.
April 23, 2019 at 5:44 pm
it is very interesting to see the companies we are used to seeing advertising for their products and services are now advertising for career opportunities. I am wondering whether they have had issue hiring and that is why they are creating such an ad.
I find both ads – specially Walmart’s – manipulative. They try to romanticize hard low paying work. People like Jon are socialized to pursue the American Dream. He wants a steady stream of income to support himself and his wife. He wanted a house, children, pets, and he also wanted to travel the world. The American Dream seems to be a useful tool for companies with poor working conditions like Walmart to adopt beautiful slogans like” work is beautiful”. They are trying to sell the idea that you are supposed to work hard (by working for us) in order to pursue the American Dream.
April 23, 2019 at 3:32 pm
In the Walmart commercials, the American Dream is represented in the idea of people being given the chance to succeed. However, the work that is done in the commercials and how Walmart helped Burt and Jon are very different. Jon worked for Walmart and had a job that allowed him to support his wife through school and their wedding. On the other hand, Burt had his own business and Walmart helped him get out of a financial crisis after the recession. Both of these men are working hard to accomplish their dreams. While Burt did not imply what his goals were, he mentioned that he had to sell his house during the recession which exemplifies the blue-collar class struggle. Jon has a lot of aspiration such as one day owning a house near the beach, having children, and traveling the world. To him, this is the American dream. I thought it was interesting how in the Walmart commercial Jon talked about how he needed a steady job to support his wife through schooling so that she can get a better job. It kind of hinted at the more common role nowadays of the women bringing in the higher income opposed to the husband. While I understand what Walmart was trying to get out with the commercial I think they did not do a good job of conveying the emotional connection of the point and instead it makes the commercial feel a little objective especially when the one about Burt starts out with as American we believe we can succeed at anything with hard work and then with Jon starting what he thought the American dream looked like to him. It almost seems like that Walmart is implying that they provide the American Dream to all there employees.