Student Post:Is the new 'Super bowl Save the Money- Tibet' Groupon commercial Racist?

by Leah, Deanna and Andrew

If you were one of the nearly 100 million Super Bowl viewers tonight, you would have caught a glimpse of this little gem; One of three controversial advertisements for the newest social savings group, Groupon.

Upon airing, a few people in the room with us gasped and cried, "that was so racist!!"





Now, most of us can agree the commercial was insensitive in it's humor, but we argue the point that it was not, in fact, racist.

The spot begins like a human needs awareness piece but is quickly revealed to be a sad attempt at self-mocking humor. By starting the spot off to pull at your heart strings, we are jolted awake when we are welcomed to join the "host" in indulging our money saving desires over our impulse for empathy. When he continues to cite the amazing savings you can get with Groupon on delicious Tibetan food, despite the political and socio-economic horrors of the Tibetans he JUST explained, we are left feeling empty and selfish about our care for saving money on such frivolous things. Although they are both true, by putting these two realities together, the commercial undermines both.

Now, the blatant labeling of the Tibetans as restaurant owners or as an always suffering people is a generalization, but we do not believe it to be racist. It is not judging Tibetans, nor making sweeping, simplistic statements about them as a culture. It's worst offense is bad taste and a poor combination of a serious topic and a mind-numbingly, short-sighted humor.

Student Post: Intel's Racist Ad

From Leah, Andrew & Deanna

 

 

 

This print ad showing six athletic black men bowing/in the running position for a business causal white guy is innately racist. The headline is more or less saying that you want to maximize the power of your employees, except the employees look like slaves.It seems like whoever was making the ad just took one person and then duplicated it six times which might be easier for production reasons but the lack of diversity in workers makes it seem like only black people are workers. While yes, it seems kenyans always win the marathons you cannot make a print ad like this and having a 6:1 ration of black workers to white boss without raising a few eyebrows. All and all I would call this a failure on Intels creative side. 

Student Post: KFC & Stereotypes

by Penelope & Martin

A lot was discussed about this KFC Australian commercial. In the spot we see a single white cricket fan handing out a KFC bucket of fried chicken to appease a group of loud cheering black West Indies fans. 

Although it was intended only for the Australian audience it soon ran around the world through the power of the Internet and what was just a culture-based advertising for the Australians became a racist offense for the Americans. 

What triggered the outrage of the Americans was that fried chicken in the US is strongly associated with old racist stereotypes. A commentator on the subject in the Digg site says that the “southern style chicken is associated with the African-American culture from when they found it an affordable means of eating during the slavery period.” But reminding that the campaign was intended for Antipodeans only it has their own culture in the background and should therefore be interpreted accordingly.

On top of that, KFC is the global sponsor of the West Indies cricket team, a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries. Test Match cricket has been played between the West Indies and Australia since 1930. And it is a fact that most Caribbean’s are black and for sure not African-American.

Another important remark is that the expression “Too easy” used by “Mick”, the Australian team fan in the commercial, is one of the most said Australian expressions, used in multiple scenarios and it can be understood something like “no problem”.
 

What do you think? Does using West Indies as the “other team” makes the ad racist? Should “Mick” be black as well? Or should it be the other way around? But wouldn’t that be racist too? And most important, were the West Indies themselves offended?
It sure isn’t an easy subject and nobody should ever feel offended by anything. But how to know where our limits are?