Dunkin' franchise criticized for 'racist' ad

[TotallyOz]

After the recent Hitler Fried Chicken made its way around the social media circles, now we have a Thailand based franchise of Dunkin Donuts making the news with an ad that many find offensive. What do you think?

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/30/dunkin-donuts-thailand-ad/2748829/

[vinapu]

I'm either thick skinned or stupid but do not see anything offensive there.

[kokopelli]

Portraying people in black face is considered offensive to many in the USA.

[Bob]

 What do you think?

 

Rather perplexing to think that some advertising agency thought that poster was intelligent, clever, and/or funny as I see no point to it at all.  The ad itself is probably not offensive to Thais but it would garner more than howls in Alabama, that's for sure. 

 

Dunkin Donuts, if they were smart, would hire a new agency to advertise and promote their products.

[NIrishGuy]

What is it they say about no such thing as bad publicity perhaps ?

[Guest Devint6669]

I do not think It is offensive, I send the picture to my cousin after and he is that color and he tough it was pretty clever to use the charcoal for the meaning of chocolate, and as the color of person he had noting to say but just having a big laugh say this is so funny.

 

For me i see no problem at all and let me tell i got no 

racist

part inside of me, in fact i like better most the time.

[ceejay]

There's a lot of history behind a very different attitude in Europe and North America, Devint. Black people are present in those places because they were enslaved by the European colonial powers and shipped of to the Americas to be sold. Slavery may have been abolished (through the course of the 19th century) in these countries, but the myth of racial and social superiority of white over black lived on for much longer (and for a thankfully decreasing minority still does live on). "Black face* shows are particularly offensive. They lived on until the late 1970's in the UK. In an era when black people were, generally, not considered good enough to appear on television you had all these white guys, dressed up in blackface, giving an infantilised portrayal of black people as childish clowns. That was part of a long and ignoble tradition of lampooning the black man as amiable, but childish, not really fit to make decisions for himself. It was a stereotype used to defend slavery against the abolition movement in the 19th century. Blackface is profoundly offensive. It is irretrievably linked with white supremacism, as much, in it's own way, as the Ku Klux Klan or the National Front.

[Rogie]

Ceejay's comments are correct. 

 

However, Bob says this may not be offensive to Thais. No doubt we shall find out whether it is or not in due course. In the meantime any of our members resident or visiting are free to ask their Thai friends for their opinions. 

[Guest Devint6669]

There's a lot of history behind a very different attitude in Europe and North America,

 

I'm From Canada and i see a lot's people with this problem about the meaning of the word's, But in this case my cousin is black and tough that was clever to them to have think this way, and me and cousin do understand what happen in past and we live in a world that still have fight about the color of one and other.  That's all had had to say about the subject i do understand why some man of color would feel offended. But in the case of and my relative we had no problem and try to forget about the idea that we still have racist people in the world we feel better this way.

Peace and Love

Color does not matter and make sure i do understand racist i had to defend my relative in this matter.

[lukylok]

I think the negative response is typically USA.  And the USers very often think their view is that of the world. But USers are only a bit less than 5 % of the people ont his planet.

[Bob]

I think the negative response is typically USA.  And the USers very often think their view is that of the world. But USers are only a bit less than 5 % of the people ont his planet.

 

I'm not so sure that comment is fair at all.  I do presume you don't have any idea as to what percentage of the negative responders (whatever that number might be) are from the USA.  But I do agree that this particular ad would not be acceptable within the US and would garner a whole lot of criticism/protest. 

 

As for Thailand (at least in the north), the Thais seem to equate white skin with superiority, wealth, and power whereas they seem to equate dark skin with the lower class and inferiority.  Just seeing the unbelievable quantity of skin whitening creams in the stores and advertised over all media tells you something about what they value.  And, at least for the north, perhaps the history of the rather white-skinned Chinese being the "elite" has something to do with it too.

 

I'll be returning to Chiangmai within the next week after having spent a few months back in my hometown (Midwest, USA). As sure as the sun rises in the east, my bf of almost 13 years will look at me and utter the words "chao naa" within seconds of my entering the door when he sees the tan I've acquired from various outdoor activities. "Chao naa", of course, means "rice farmer" in Thai and, although the bf will say the term somewhat humorously, it's not a term of endearment to most Thais.     

[Rogie]

That's a strange bit of logic Bob. You are quite right that Thais equate a pale skin as some sort of status. In that case using a black model to advertise their product ought to backfire on them. I suspect if the model was a Thai rice farmer (perhaps made even blacker by smearing her face with charcoal or whatever) it wouldn't work at all. Whereas that model shown in the OP doesn't look at all Thai to me. As these doughnuts are from a company based in America (I think I am right in saying that) the ad is relying on Thais equating exotic (foreign) black model with American 'know-how', by which I mean American companies dominate the fast-food market and their products are keenly sought after by many Thais.

 

Personally I think that doughnuts (do-nuts) are grossly overpriced in Thailand. Take a look at Devint's excellent post about street food and you'll see what I mean!

[Bob]

Personally I think that doughnuts (do-nuts) are grossly overpriced in Thailand.

 

So do I.  Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from buying them! 

 

Somewhat back to topic, my impression is that Thais look at dark-skinned Asians quite differently than how they look at black foreigners.  For their own darker-skinned "cousins", they generally look down on them (I say that based on all the comments I've heard from Thais I know). As for black falang, I think they look at them with puzzlement and perhaps at times even think of black skin as exotic; however, that doesn't mean at all that Thais want anything but the whitest of skins for themselves.  We don't see all that many blacks in the Chiangmai area but I do notice that they often turn some heads (I would hope that most of that is due to simply seeing something different although I do have to admit that I've heard a couple of Thai friends privately make a few perjorative remarks about the skin color).

 

By the way, noticed an article in today's The Nation regarding the alleged dangers of skin-whitening creams.  I have no idea if the Thai newspapers carried the article in Thai but I suspect nobody would pay attention to it anyway. Article is at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Whitening-creams-can-be-dangerous-expert-warns-30213986.html

[bkkguy]

In an era when black people were, generally, not considered good enough to appear on television you had all these white guys, dressed up in blackface, giving an infantilised portrayal of black people as childish clowns. That was part of a long and ignoble tradition of lampooning the black man as amiable, but childish, not really fit to make decisions for himself.

 

substitute yellow for black and you also have the portrayal of Asians in Hollywood movies  and on UK TV for many years - R&H's The King and I is still banned in Thailand, etc etc etc!

 

and yes skin colour in Thailand is a status issue not a race issue - we in the west get a tan to show we can afford to lead a life of leisure, in Thailand you have dark skin because you are labouring in the fields! The real race issues here are about the neighbors in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and it is very much about lampooning their inferiority - sometimes it seems half the population of Bangkok thinks the only reason Laos exists is so the Isarn people have someone to look down on!

 

and yes for Thais foreign blacks are a novelty quite exploitable in this advertising context and defiantly not sullied by the local negative connotations of dark skin and farm workers, and who in Thailand really cares about western prejudices and politically correct sensibilities?

 

bkkguy

[Guest snwbrdr015]

Huh? Am I the blunt European here? How is this ad racial? They are promoting a product called 'charcoal donut'. Charcoal. As in pitch black. It would be a different story if they called it an African donut right? But the didn't. It's charcoal. And they are portraying a beautiful lady painted black. To emphasize the blackness of the charcoal thingy they try to sell ya! So what. 

 

What is it nowadays with the overly politicly correct behavior? Sometimes people are putting so much effort in being pc, they cramp themselves. I think Luckylok has a point though. In Europe, well at least in Holland I guess, people don't generally understand US morals. You can't show a tit on national TV but you can buy a gun on every street corner. What??!!?? Tits don't kill people, guns do! Talking morals here hey. Hmmm, I get carried away here....Anyway. Nice ad, nice lady, esthetic lips... Still don't like donuts, they make you fat faster than Usain Blot runs the 200 meters. Oh shoot....he's black too 

Peace

[vinapu]

For tasty Donut please review GayRomeo section of this  forum,  post # 10  gives you kind of  recipe

 

 

http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/9033-gayromeo-review-of-maxkyza-13655129-pattaya/

[Rogie]

I don't read that particular forum, so I missed that. Thanks for the link.

 

Is Donut a common Thai name? (joke). I assume it's a falung-inspired nickname. Hopefully he has the consistency of his namesake.