I'm someone who finds the straightforward in-your-face racism boring, and quite frankly, offensive. Yeah, it's the bizarro racism that really turns my melanin burgundy. To wit this commercial for an herbal toothpaste:
1. little white (copy updates w/ probably Asian) girl needs big black dude to monkey-climb the post for her balloon. honestly, I wouldn't flinch myself, but the black people-monkey allusions are still dangerously touchy territory in 2009 for anyone to be toying with in an ad campaign.
2. Making sure if you thought the gorilla climbing the tree was inadvertent racism, we have the crazy mother scooping her child up because a black guy in a tanktop and shorts just climbed 500 feet to retrieve her daughter's balloon ...???
3. Then with 20 seconds remaining in the clip, our poor balloon-fetcher returns to what appears to be his one-bedroom apartment in a suburbanish housing complex, where we find out he retrieves balloons and scares moms regularly, sleeps on a giant toothbrush, and turns into -- i'm guessing here -- herbal toothpaste. Ahh yes, makes me want to get those cavities out right now!
So i have no idea why, and i'm all a fan of going outside the box or whathaveyou, but this racist Donnie Darko-meets-Colgate approach to advertising just seems a little off the mark for me. But maybe this is what you need to do these days to get the kids to brush their teeth.
via: copyranter
This type of racism doesn't bother me. Advertising is an excuse to be ignorant and predictale.
ReplyDeleteI just watched a "Heineken" commercial where the women all screamed over a big closet and the males all screamed over a big closet full of beer.
I blame it on these corporations hiring shitty fresh out of college marketing majors.
Anyways I wonder why there isn't any commercials for "211 Steele Reserves"?
Lmao okay, before I posted I didn't see the video. Blame it on the "blackberry", but hot damn after seeing it, I can't help but shake my mother-bleeping head.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the outrage about the Lebron James magazine cover with model Giselle. That was subtle, this was blatant.
Someone said it along time ago that the farthest people in race-relations are Blacks and Asians. Even though we've had an extensive history together, I.E. friend chicken wings, orange chicken and Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon".
I figured that movie solved everything. I guess not.
I honestly have no words for that craptastically racist commercial. I'm too through...
ReplyDeletein case you hadn't had your fill of questionable toothpaste ads today, out here in Taiwan there's a brand of toothpase called "Black Man (้ปไบบ็่)' toothpaste, also known as "Darlie". It used to be named "Darkie" Toothpaste, until the folks at Colgate-Palmolive came under fire for the name.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie
what. what. what. what was that? how? thats crazy.
ReplyDeletehmm. doesn't even make sense. what's this have to do with the toothpaste? are black men good for your teeth? is racism? balloons?
ReplyDeleteplease explain.
At the end it says "Appearances can be deceiving."
ReplyDeleteThat makes perfect sense to me. It's talking about racist stereotypes and how black folks get screwed even when they work hard. Did y'all miss that?
Works for me.
ReplyDelete"But maybe this is what you need to do these days to get the kids to brush their teeth."
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahaha
good one.
In all seriousness, we need a Peer reviewed study to see just how many times this happens in the streets. I'm thinking it happens a lot more than it's being reported.