I would argue it started around 2013 or 2014, but we've seen more or less the same thing. I haven't watched TV in a few years, so maybe it's gotten worse.
One thing I always thought was interesting; Apple commercials, which go out of their way to feature many types of racial minorities, do not show any:
- obese people
- weirdly proportioned people
- ugly people
- poor people
- person over 45
- meatheads
- Republican-looking people
- disabilities besides deaf, blind, and mobility, e.g. burn victims
They are into advertising to the groups that will be the best-received for their bottom line. It's no more than that, and it's foolish to think otherwise.
There's a Whose Line Is It Anyway bit from a couple decades ago where Wayne Brady (musically talented, athletic, young, black guy) says "How come there's no one who looks like me on 'Friends'??" The audience says "Aww" in sympathy. And then Colin Mochrie (balding, awkward, white Canadian guy) repeats "How come there's no one who looks like me on 'Friends'??"
One thing I always thought was interesting; Apple commercials, which go out of their way to feature many types of racial minorities, do not show any:
- obese people
- weirdly proportioned people
- ugly people
- poor people
- person over 45
- meatheads
- Republican-looking people
- disabilities besides deaf, blind, and mobility, e.g. burn victims
They are into advertising to the groups that will be the best-received for their bottom line. It's no more than that, and it's foolish to think otherwise.