This might be the most recent of all ads that we spoke on in this weeks blog post. H&M released an ad with a little African American child shirt reading “Coolest Monkey in The Jungle”. Once this ad hit the internet social media and blog sites had a field day. If you do not know, African Americans were compared to monkeys in the past. So putting an African American little boy in a shirt reading monkey caused a huge uproar. H&M might not have looked at it that way when creating this campaign. They might look at it as monkeys being a animal all kids enjoy. With the history of monkeys in the black community this just wasn’t a smart move. The media is framing that African Americans are viewed as animals in this ad. Now as a viewer i thought this could be an honest mistake, but mistakes like these aren’t going to go over lightly. Many African Americans protested against H&M when this happen. Like i stated earlier, companies need a team of all races and genders to view things like this. The intentions might have not been to harm but it hurt many individuals after seeing it. Videos surfaced of individuals destroying H&M stores after the ad made its way to social media. Below is the picture attached so you can also view the ad. Give your opinions on the topic, do you feel this ad was racists or do you feel it was blown out of proportion?

Intel released an ad which shown a Caucasian man in business causal clothing and six African American men in track uniforms bowing around him. This ad wasn’t smart for Intel to release. Not only does the ad show the men bowing down, the ad also reads “Multiple computering performance and maximize the power of your employees”. The words maximize the power of your employees put the icing on the cake. The men bowing to the Caucasian man make it seem like he’s superior to them. Many people would connect it to slavery but I don’t want to take it that far. Companies need to be more sensitive when releasing ads and really review them before letting the world see it. The media is framing the idea of certain races being superior in this ad, and this is a touchy topic in America today. Seeing that this add is from years ago and still hits home today is crazy. Intel eventually pulled the ad because they also seen an issue with it after final reviews. Sadly a few copies still mad its way to the media. Below is the picture attached so you can also view the ad. Give your opinions on the topic, do you feel this ad was racists or do you feel it was blown out of proportion?

KFC had an ad years ago overseas that acted as a Cricket Survival Guide. There were a few ads in this series but there is one in particular that I would like to speak on for our topic. There is a guy with an Australian accent sitting in a crowd of African American individuals who are dancing, clapping, and playing music. The actor then says “you need a tip when stuck in an awkward situation”. After he says this he pulls out a bucket of KFC and all the African Americans around him start to grab the chicken and fries and the actor says, “to easy”. I feel this ad was more stereotypical then racists. The ad took place overseas so they might not view certain issues like we do in the states. KFC being a national brand, I feel should know that the commercial would have backlash and looked at as racists/stereotypical. The media tends to frame issues using stereotypes to sell their products. I feel companies need to have more people of all nationalities and genders view commercials to prevent things like this from happening. Like I stated earlier I feel this was an honest mistake, but many people labeled the issue and commercial as racists. I know people may say everybody loves chicken what’s the issue, but things such as fried chicken are looked at to be African Americans favorite food so this ad should’ve taken that into consideration. Give your opinions on the topic, do you feel this commercial was racists/stereotypical or do you feel it was blown out of proportion?

Chicago Lake Liquors located in South Minneapolis, they put out a series of ads years ago which tried to turn what people would call “African American” dialect into a joke for promotion purposes. In a series of three commercials you will see Caucasian men doing stereotypical things that are pinned on the African American race, and Latino race. One of the ads open up with an African American man wearing a du rag picking up the phone using words such as pimpin, crackin, and homie as he discusses with his friend that he is picking up a bottle of Hennessy so they can have a good time. In the next aisle is a Caucasian man, may I add dressed very nice in a sweater and khaki pants, listening in on the African American man’s conversation. The commercial then switches scenes to both men at the checkout line. The Caucasian man says “that is pimp tight” to the cashier since she saves him some money. She then awkwardly fist pounds him as he turns to the camera and smiles with a grill in his mouth. In the background you can see the African American man face of confusion. This is just one example of the stereotypes used in these commercials. The media tends to frame stereotypes as marketing points for companies. A lot of times they use it in a way that they feel will get laughs. In this case it was just plain distasteful, and you could tell the company was reaching for laughs. The company knew what they were doing but failed to get a laugh out of me as the viewer. Below is a link attached so you can also view the ad. Give your opinions on the topic, do you feel this commercial was racists or do you feel it was blown out of proportion? You will also see how the company tried to use stereotypes within the Latino community.

In a 2017 ad named “Light is Better” Heineken decided to make a creative decision to put a commercial out of a bartender sliding a bottle of Heineken down a bar top which then passes a montage of three African American individuals. After passing these three African American individuals it stops by a bottle of light liquor and the words on the screen reads “Sometimes Light is Better”.  A Caucasian women then picks up the bottle and the commercial ends. The idea of lighter being better has been framed throughout media for as long as I can remember. This ad did not sit well with many viewers and I can see why. I fell Heineken mad an honest mistake with the ad and might of not noticed the images they were displaying on screen truly contradicted itself and set them up for failure in the end. Once this ad caught wind of a lot of backlash Heineken did decide to pull the ad from the air, which I feel was the smartest choice in this situation. Chance the Rapper, who is very influential with today’s youth spoke out on the commercial which also brought a lot of media attention to the issue. Below is a link attached so you can also view the ad. Give your opinions on the topic, do you feel this commercial was racists or do you feel it was blown out of proportion?

Sometimes the media portrays messages through their ads intentionally or unintentionally. Race issues in American are seen on and off the screen. In this week’s blog post I would like to take a closer look at a few controversial ads that have made their way to the public eyes over the years. Let’s dive deep and see how the media framed these topics of race issues to the masses.