Comments on: 25 Most Racist Advertisements and Commercials

By: jihobr

jihobr — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:48:33 +0000

So wrong. Sometimes pointing out “perceived” racism is more racist than the originator ever intended. You have to be pretty racist yourself to find offensive matter in many of these examples. I’m offended.

By: Concerned

Concerned — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:38:39 +0000

oh people come off it. I think this man has some legitamcy to his claims that these commercials have an underlying theme of racism. Learn to read between the lines and past the superficiality of the commercial. I mean really ask yourself why a commercial would feature a black man who would have the ability to climb a 40ft pole in ten seconds. Is there not an underlying message in that claim? Is that not reinforcing the sterotype that black people are born athletic and can do any type of physical labor without any effort. I mean he wasnt even tired afterwards! I urge you not to stew in your ignorance. This man tries to open your eyes to subtle themes of racism in advertisment and he’s denounced as a liberal quackpot. I mean these may not be the top 25 most racist commercials, but the point is to take a look at the advertising being shoved down our throats, the ones we are supposed to mindlessly accept and go along with. This is the problem with advertising today. They play off our fears, e.g. #1, 9, 18, make fun of the oppressed in society and the dominant group is shown as desireable and successful, e.g. # 12. I could go on but I’ll end it here.

By: douglas

douglas — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:42:24 +0000

You should try and be a little less transparent in your political agenda. Especially when it’s already pretty much clear in 9 short months what a God awful, absolutely horrific president Barack Obama is. Three more years!! UGH!!! And to think people were saying Sarah Palin was dangerous! And we are stuck with this self inflated egomaniac conceited man who would be king!

By: Katrina

Katrina — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:06:05 +0000

I disagree that some of these are racist and definitely see less of an expose of racism in advertising (and how it snuck in, perhaps?) than a rather weak effort to accuse anyone who runs against a black opponent in a political race of being racist. I’m sorry, but Obama really IS inexperience in the political career compared to McCain. That’s a fact. Automatically calling any mention of that fact racist has made many of Obama’s supporters look stupid over the last year or so. Yes, there are some who have used racist remarks to scare people out of voting for Obama, but that ad is not one of those. Also, those racist remarks obviously didn’t work.

Many of these ads, though. Whew! The Intel ad in particular is frustratingly racist.

By: DrinkLikeAMick

DrinkLikeAMick — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:38:46 +0000

Is an advertisement still racist if the population that it supposedly maligns is not remotely offended? I’m talking about the Lucky Charms commercial. I’m Irish-American, and I can’t recall it ever coming up in conversation as an a matter of great offense to my kind (and trust me, we are mighty prideful and quick to take offense at any slight to our great culture…) . Then again, LC is my favorite cereal (In college, I once ate nothing but Lucky Charms for a week on a dare). So maybe I’ve been co-opted.

Still, the offense level of the Lucky seems pretty minimal compared to some of the others. I get the sense that the compiler of the list was trying to be even handed and outre PC by including some white people in the list.

On another topic, in the 80’s someone gave me some “Darkie Brand’ toothpaste that they had found while travelling the orient. The packaging included a stereotypical cartoon caricature of a black man – big red lips, huge white eyes, etc. I was too embarrased to ever open it, so I can’t say what color the dentifrice actually was. But perhaps there’s some parallel to the toothpaste ad shown here?

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:08:06 +0000

You were aware that the Terrorist commercial was not actually used by VW? Of course it’s on the internet so it must be true, therefore we must be outraged at VW right? It should not be in this list, if you’ve included it knowing it’s fake then that’s being misleading and damaging VW’s reputation (when it was actually an advertising agency that made this, VW refused to use it). If you’ve included it thinking it’s real, then you’re a poor excuse for a journalist if you don’t check your facts.

By: Weeble

Weeble — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:35:50 +0000

Barney Fife, Howdy Doody, the dad on Family Guy, Eric Cartman, Elmer Fudd, Otis the drunk, the entire cast of Seinfeld, on and on and on and on.

All those hate their own race? Hogwash! All of them are lovable goofy buffoons… who are white in a white dominated society. What is wrong with celebrating the eccentric and colorful humans in our midst?

Non-white comedians make fun of whites all the time and the whites laugh away in response.

To the author, go seek counseling and figure out why you require everything to be dark, brooding, paranoid and conspiratorial. Lighten up and laugh a little and enjoy your fellow humans. They are not all out to get you!

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:24:56 +0000

Why do we think that everyone has the right to not be offended? This person thinks that anything that can be twisted into something racial is shameful. They should be ashamed of themselves for being so stupid. For the record, I am afraid of black toothpaste.

By: N.E. Body

N.E. Body — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:15:17 +0000

The sixties era commercial does not contain a Native American or “Red Man”. It is supposed to be an African warrior. That’s the first clue that this author has no idea what he/she is talking about. Any time an Asian commercial may be “racist”, it isn’t said to be racist outright, because “Look, it’s an ethnic person making fun of an ethnic person! How the hell do we treat that?” And the storage container commercial is only an outrage to someone looking to pick a fight. Seriously, get a life.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:55:57 +0000

These videos are really useless. While some are clearly racist, the majority are simply racial, i.e. showing people of different races in a commercial.

The author tips his hand with the unreasonable phrase, “McCain’s ads depicting Obama as a frivolous celebrity along the likes of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears may not be overtly racist but clearly seek to diminish Obama as a serious political leader and presidential contender.”

So in other words, they were not racist. The same ads could have been run against someone of any race. The only reason to call them racist would be because any insult to (then) Sen. Obama was racist because he stood as a symbol of all black people.

But some of the commercials here show neither a liberal bias nor true racism, but are clearly just part of a bad article. Kool-aid playing basketball with black kids is not racist, unless only white kids can appear in commercials. Lucky Charms are not racist. He is a leprechaun for goodness sake. The black toothpaste commercial is weird but not racist. If anything the message is about the damaging effects of racist stereotypes.

Back to the liberal theme. Willie Horton ad is not racist. It might have been untrue that Dukakis let him go free, but he was a criminal.

And TWO ads about Harold Ford? The first ad might be intentionally playing on racist stereotypes in Tennessee but the second is making fun of liberals and is clearly not racist in the least. It addresses racism. It might be completely wrong. It is not racist.