Pepsi Super Bowl ad accused of fostering black stereotypes

[alp227]

In Pepsi's "Crash the Super Bowl" contest, the ad "Love Hurts" was a finalist that the Fox network broadcast during commercial break.

Keith Olbermann tweeted about the ad: "offensive black guy/white woman cliche." What's that cliche you ask? Joni Hudson-Reynolds describes: "The angry black woman that kicks her husband, puts his head in a pie and stuffs soap in his mouth...When her black man is finally doing something right like drinking a Pepsi Max he has to stare at a white girl and then ole angry aims a can at her husband but hits the white woman and they both run like children."

Super Bowl ads have tested the boundaries of taste. For example, in 2007 the Snickers commercial accused of homophobia. And the networks have banned various ads ranging from MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 Seconds" to PETA to one depicting two gay men kissing.

This isn't the only "black man/white woman" controversy: In 2008, Vogue magazine encountered controversy with a cover featuring basketball player LeBron James and fashion model Gisele Bundchen because it somehow resembled the movie poster for King Kong and the WWII-era "Destroy This Mad Brute" poster.

The YouTube community is divided about this: as of now there are 1,741 views with 44 likes and 29 dislikes. The two most liked comments: "reverse the colors and it would never have been taped at all" (defending the ad) and "I suggest we all flag the video for racial intolerance" (against the ad). What do you think? More humorous or offensive? I say that this ad was boring and in bad taste.

[PoliticAverse]

1. Racial stereotypes or domestic violence as a joke? n/t

[glinda]

2. True. Also the two Ads with the most physical violence were on women also.

[On the Road]

3. I Think It Was Actually Neither

and in today's multiculturally aware advertising industry, it would certainly have been filmed with the roles reversed.

[hlthe2b]

4. offensive across the board...

not even remotely amusing.

[Purveyor]

5. I knew this was coming the second the ad was over... eom

[jobycom]

6. Hey, what says "Happy Birthday, Reagan!" more than racism and violence against women?

A black woman beans a white woman unconscious and leaves her laying on the pavement because the white woman smiled at her man, and someone at Pepsi thought that was a good idea? Happy Birthday, Ronald. I guess you really aren't dead yet.

And ask yourself the more disturbing question: Who did they mean to be the target audience? Is this their opinion of black men, black women, white women, or is it just that they are so white that they still think race jokes are funny to everyone that matters?

It wasn't the worst I've seen in terms of stereotypes, but still, there's no way Pepsi didn't have someone tell them it was offensive. They went ahead with it anyway. At the very least, it shows who they give priority to.

[Brewman_Jax]

7. Advertising SOP

and shows the standard level of disrespect that is afforded to marginalized groups in general, black people in particular, on a regular basis. The regular offensive stereotypes, hyped even more, put on display for shock value.

The comment "reverse the colors and it would never have been taped at all" is not necessarily a defense of the ad, but a fact of life--it would not have happened.