PepsiCo just pulled a Mountain Dew ad wherein an injured
white woman was attempting to pick her abuser out of an all-black (except for
the goat) line-up.
At least the comment from the Pepsi Co rep provided a good
laugh:
"We understand how this video could be perceived by
some as offensive, and we apologize to those who were offended."**
How interesting to employ the more neutral term of
"perceived." Its not simply "perceived" by "some"
as offensive, it is offensive, and apologizing just to those who made a fuss
isn't sufficient. Not only does the ad highlight the widespread sexism in the
US's society, it also brings to fore questions about the need for women in
corporate leadership (although, it is interesting to note, the CEO of Pepsi is
a woman). What role did women play in creating this ad? Would the addition of
more women in creating it have changed anything? Additionally, the ad
perpetuates widespread prejudice, inequalities, stereotypes, and harmful norms.
Like Maria so eloquently pointed out in the post two before mine, violence (and
the slew of negatives aforementioned) have been institutionalized and
normalized.
*euphemism courtesy of Ann Jones
** Heine, Christopher. "Mountain Dew Pulls 'Most Racist
Commercial in History' | Adweek." Adweek – Breaking News in Advertising,
Media and Technology. Adweek, n.d. Web. 2 May 2013.
<http://www.adweek.com/news/television/mountain-dew-pulls-most-racist-commercial-history-149061>.
I saw something about this too. And interesting to note all the uploaded versions of this clip on youtube and articles about it label it as racist in the title, yet don't mention the portrayal of the woman or sexism until the body of the articles. It is brought up more as a second thought to the overtly racist ideas it portrays.
ReplyDelete--Erika