Comments on: Crazy racist commercials

By: Joekerr

Joekerr — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Putney swopes!! My man!!! Yeah those that scream “racism” at every joke or any noted difference are just plain stupid!
I’m in an inter-racial marriage and I know the difference between “racism” and a joke… over-sensitive is also a control freak mechanism- PC is slavery folks!!!

By: Kutison

Kutison — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:21:00 +0000

It is a fact that people are different, and to deny this is to reject reality. Everyone deserves the same love and respect no matter who they are, but to deny the differences of the versions of our species is to forget who we are.

If you are offended by something that you feel is culturally insensitive, then you are either denying the differences between you and that person, or you are not willing to understand another persons point of view.

By: your full name

your full name — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:04:00 +0000

to this day i dont understand why only white people are required to kiss everyone elses ass about race

By: Davevanfunk

Davevanfunk — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:37:00 +0000

OMG! I remember the Jello commercial. I used to come running into the room when I heard it because the animation was so minimalistic, and the script was so clever. I’m sure the ad campaign picked up a Clio (advertising equivalent of an Emmy) or two. Of course, everyone on Madison Avenue was white at the time.

What strikes me in the Colt Ad is the long tapered goblet that he pours the beer into. Yes, cowboys always drank their beer out of designer glassware.

Speaking of racism and advertising — Anyone out there remember a movie called Putney Swope?

By: Al

Al — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:49:00 +0000

@ Steve -

I lived in Japan as a foreign exchange student for a year. Once during a welcome meeting for all the foreign exchange students, a group of Japanese businessmen stood up and proceeded to give speeches, mocking our accents. They spoke really slowly and made lots of mistakes. The Japanese in the audience laughed gently. All of the foreign exchange students sat in stunned silence.

Afterwards they couldn’t understand why we were so insulted. They thought they were just making innocent little cultural jokes. But we thought it was VERY condescending, and VERY demeaning. It was funny, sure, if you were Japanese. But to us, it was downright racist.

It’s not that we were hypersensitive – it’s that it’s really insulting for someone to interpret your cultural difference as slowness, stupidity or inferiority. I’m not going to list everything I found offensive about the Jell-o commercial, but I can certainly understand how a Chinese person would be offended by the portrayal of their culture within it.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:29:00 +0000

The VW commercial is awesome. The problem isn’t the ad people on that one but instead the overly sensitive viewers who enjoy being offended and whining.

No one was hurt in it(that matters) and it doesn’t advocate violence.

By: Sensitive white male

Sensitive white male — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:56:00 +0000

“Chinese mother BLINGS baby Jello.” (!?)
Usually the people who claim people are too “sensitive” to these kinds of things are the same people who have never experience racism or are too insensitive themselves to realize how hurtful and offensive these kinds of attitudes really are…

By: Steve S

Steve S — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:54:00 +0000

WOW! Some people are simply WAAAAY too sensitive! If you lived back in the day of the Jello commercial (like I did) you’d realize that there was nothing racist about it at all. We could garner a smile out of cultural differences without laughing at the people of the culture. There was a separation in the two. The problem today is that a single word can be construed as being racist even if it were not the case. Remember the black judge who threw out a case because the prosecuting attorney used the phrase “a black mark against…” And it continues no matter what the person’s color. Some people need to put their sensitivities in check before making judgements.

By: TBV

TBV — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:01:00 +0000

To interject a bit of logic…

To label these spots as “racist”, we must all be able to agree on the definition of what “racism” is (and isn’t). Some say it has to do with power, some say it’s about culture. But if we can’t agree on a definition of the term, it’s impossible to label anything as “racist”. As we learned in Logic 101, we gotta all agree that 1 foot equals 12 inches before we use it to measure anything.

To take race out of the equation, I think some of the spots were funny, some weren’t, some were tasteless. But that’s a subjective opinion.

Sorry about that. Let’s get back to the Race War. It’s ON!

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:49:00 +0000

The only way one can declare those commercials “Not racist” is to be completely oblivious to the history of race in the United States. Or the history of colonialism, for that matter.