Hasta La Creative!

The official drink of the Washington Redskins … and Dave & Buster’s?

College Humor created this fake ad a little while back for Diet Racism—the drink that has all the sweet ignorance of regular racism but with none of the guilt or self-awareness. It’s the drink of choice for people who don’t realize that the phrase “I’m not racist, but …” doesn’t magically make whatever comes after it less racist.

It’s actually been quite a year for discussions of racism involving brands. Maybe this fake commercial could be a good hiring tool for potential brand or social media managers. If they laugh, maybe they’ll be a little less likely to go full-on racist in a tweet.

If they tell you the Irish really were persecuted too, well, there’s a red flag.

Not sure what the endgame for this Vitamin Water subway "prank" was, since it's basically a comedy video onto which the brand rivet-gunned its "Make Boring Brilliant" tagline. Still, two things immediately caught my eye. First, all the regular commuters gritting their teeth when they hear “may I have your attention please,” because homelessness on public transit is something of a medicine show these days. Second, the subway bragger's shtick went on way too long, and his audience figured out what he was doing well before he finished up and left them alone. Hard to call this a prank, really—it's more of a stunt. Plus, maybe a sugar-water brand's energy would be better spent actually helping the homeless than making fun of them.