Advertising Is Good For You

I'm sure the old Quaker meant well. Still.

Via Reddit

Racist Duncan Hines commercial pulled

A TV commercial for Duncan Hines Amazing Glazes was pulled because of complaints that it's racist.

Personally, I think the promotion would have been fine if they hadn't used the term "Hip Hop cupcakes." But, unfortunately, they did. And that turned cute cupcakes into blackface baked goods.

Judge for yourself.

Click here to see the Duncan Hines spot some called racist and get the chance to vote whether or not you agree.

Fingerhut grillz

Years ago, when I was much younger and still living with my parents, Fingerhut catalogs would regularly come in the mail. They were full of welcome mats, salt & pepper shakers and poly/cotton sweatshirts. Unicorns, kittens and bowling were popular themes.

Today, Fingerhut's business model apparently includes extending credit to people with poor credit scores -- and using questionable imagery -- as the banner ad above indicates.

In case you were wondering, THIS is the screen where I saw this banner ad.

Halloween costume hall of shame: adult edition

Source: Sociological Images

No doubt, this was written by a white person

From yesterday's Daily Candy email...

 

Can't believe they used the exclusionary "flesh-tone" to describe the color of the product.

Crayola changed the name of its "flesh" colored crayon to "peach" back in 1962 because the crayon maker recognized the racist implications.

 

WTF, CNN?

While on the treadmill yesterday, I watched CNN do a story on the opening weekend of Disney's The Princess and the Frog. This feature-length cartoon marks the first time Disney has featured an African American princess as a lead female character. It's a milestone worth celebrating. And as the CNN story reported, all over the country, young black girls attended the movie's opening dressed as princesses, not unlike these four lovelies.

Unfortunately, the CNN reporter referred to the young black girls at the theater as "fair maidens."

Racial harmony + furniture = viral TV commercial

I love this wonderfully quirky TV spot for a furniture store in North Carolina.

Some, though, find it offensive.

Watch it and judge for yourself.

CLICK HERE to see the spot.

The spot was created by Rhett and Link.

Ralph Lauren celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Or is he celebrating Obama's inauguration? I'm not sure.

This ad made me groan when I saw it in yesterday's New York Times. Like so much of Ralph Lauren's advertising, it seems to be trying too hard. Here's another example of what I mean.

The University of Wisconsin is committed to diversity

 

BEFORE                                        AFTER

                                                               Image source: Horse/Water 

The University's attention to detail does not go unnoticed.

Celebrating Black History Month the thoughtless way

Click image to enlarge.

Are advertising and marketing types the only ones who give a thought to product placement?

Source: Bits & Pieces

Is this advertisement as offensive as I think it is?

Source: MultiCultClassics

Local landmark/offensive stereotype/very ambitious repurposing of roadside marketing

This approximately 40-foot tall Native American stands atop what was once a Chicago cigar store. When the building was taken over by an optometrist, the giant Native American was fitted with eyeglasses and a sign that reads, "Eye can see now."

Racism. It's in there.

I saw a TV spot the other day for Prego tomato sauce. It featured a nice middle-class African-American couple in their nice middle-class kitchen. The spot ended with the man proclaiming that the Prego sauce was perfect as is by saying, "Nah, it don't need nothin'."

Middle-class white people in TV commercials never use such atrocious grammar -- unless they're supposed to be hillbillies of the Jethro Bodine variety.

I'd love to hear the rationale for making the African-American actor in the Prego spot sound like he had a fourth-grade education.