It’s been almost three years since the infamous racist backlash to the Cheerios commercial with the interracial family, and brands are still getting heat when they broadcast images of diversity. But these days, the brands always seem ready for the haters—and as often as not, they use their vitriol against them.
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.
Racism doesn’t just manifest in overt statements and gestures. It can also take shape in more subtle ways—and still have devastating effects.
A powerful new spot from Australian public mental health organization beyondblue portrays a series of scenarios where quiet but very real prejudice—mainly in the form of unwarranted sideways glances, nervous shuffling, and insensitive jokes from light-skinned strangers—takes a toll on the psyches of Indigenous Australians, a group that includes Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.
The clip from agency Marmalade has more than 400,000 YouTube views since being posted July 28. Some commenters over at Campaign Brief find it a bit too blatant. Yes, the ominous character who appears in each setting to personify and rationalize racist inclinations makes the theme quite obvious. But maybe that’s a good thing. The point of the ad is to shine a light on often unspoken subtext, and it’s hard to do that without making the insults truly explicit.
Plus, as straightforward as the message is, much of its emotional impact still comes from the body language of the actors, not the copywriting. That said, closing line does drive the point home particularly well: “No one should be made to feel like crap just for being who they are.”
Sadly, there's still a Nazi presence in Germany. Recently, an organization named Laut Gegen Nazis, or Loud Against Nazis, decided to combat the hate with lots of love—or rather, lots of likes.
On International Holocaust Memorial Day, the group encouraged a diverse group of Germans (recruited by ad agency Jung Von Matt/Elbe) to like the NDP (the country's neo-Nazi party) on Facebook and then swarm the page with positive, anti-racist messages like "For a colorful Germany." According to the case study below, more than 100,000 protesters participated in the "Like Attack," and the ensuing coverage generated some 7 million media impressions.
While it's a little unfortunate that participants had to take an action that, on its face, expressed enthusiasm for an awful political presence, the irony is obvious enough to anyone with a brain, and makes for a relatively small evil as a means for raising broader awareness of the issue.
Plus, there's the rich history in social movements of loving your enemies instead of hating them, including the work of revolutionary giants like Martin Luther King Jr.—even if the "Like Attack" doesn't have quite as much depth as some of his thoughts on the subject.
Credits below.
CREDITS
Client: Laut Gegen Nazis
Agency: Jung Von Matt/Elbe
Chief Creative Officers: Tobias Grimm, Doerte Spengler-Ahrens
Creative Directors: Hans-Peter Sporer, Henning Robert
Art Directors: Thimon Machatzke, Canhur Aktuglu
Writer: Luitguard Hagl
Agency Producer: Dennis Wendt
Sound Designer: Steven Hofmann
Digital Multimedia Artist: Joscha Kadegge
Producer: Anna Liem
Do black people and fat people deserve to earn less money than skinny white people?
Well, no, but the arguments in favor of such a wage gap are somewhat entertaining in two new spots from equalpayday.be, a Belgian organization whose mission is to raise awareness about equal pay for … another demographic. (You can probably guess where this is going, but we won't spoil the surprise.)
The comparison certainly isn't perfect, and this tactic likely won't win over many who are unconcerned with the real wage gap at issue. It also probably won't go over too well with people who earnestly do feel held back in their careers because of their race or weight. But with ads so joyously sarcastic, it's hard to hold too much of a grudge.
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After being called racist for portraying Westerners as big-nosed blond men who aren't afraid of hugs, Japan's All Nippon Airways has promised to edit the offending scene out of its commercial.
In the original spot, shown below, an All Nippon pilot (played by a popular comedian) attempts to "change the image of Japanese people" by donning a long, fake nose and a blond wig. The airline began receiving complaints in social media that this portrayal was insulting to Westerners.
What's more apparent to me is the self-deprecation on display here ("such a Japanese reaction"). In fact, I'd dare to say this ad isn't particularly offensive, especially when compared to all the other stuff one could say about Americans. Hell, the fact that we aren't being depicted as fat oafs who smell like grease and milk is a step toward progress.
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| THE ORIGINAL? Rom (Kandia Dulce) – 2011 Source : Cannes SILVER LION Agency : McCann (Romania) |
LESS ORIGINAL United Nations Unwomen – 2013 Source : Adsoftheworld Agency : Ogilvy Dubaï (UAE) |
LESS ORIGINAL Anti Racism – 11/2013 Source : Osocio Agency : ? (Australia) |
The past few years have seen many a regrettable tweet from supposedly professional companies, but this one just might be the most cringe-worthy of them all. This morning, the Atlanta Journal Constitution posted a tweet saying, "$1M GA Lottery winner Willie Lynch can get 40 acres and a whole lotta mules."
The tweet linked to a brief article on lottery winners, which did not include any sort of "40 acres and a mule" reference. The phrase refers to a post-Civil War proposal to help freed slaves begin new lives by giving them land previously held by whites. Such proposals became a source of bitterness among black Southerners when the policies were reversed shortly after the war.
New York magazine's website reports that the tweet was soon deleted and that "a spokesperson at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was unaware of the message and is now trying to figure out why it happened." An apology has been posted, which you can see below.
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