Will the genius behind this campaign please stand up?

Okay, so is this a fatal mistake?  Not really.

It’s just dumb.

Oh, fuck it.  This calls for Angry Black Man mode.

If you’re wondering how something like this happened, I’ll tell you.  Because those lily white, running-to-catch-the Hamptons-Jitney crowd at McCann don’t have one fucking clue about anyone who doesn’t look like them.  Sadly, I don't think really give a fuck.

I mean, it’s 2007 for crissakes!  You mean to tell me that no one had an iota of an inkling that this ad was leveraging some tired stereotypes?  Such as:

1. White guy=in charge manager
2. Black guys=physical specimens signifying performance at this beck and call

My wife saw the ad and said, “Looks like a slave ship.”

And, what, there aren’t any white sprinters?

If there was ever an indication that the industry has a diversity problem, this is it.  Any company supposedly committed to diversity should have a workforce that mirrors to country its work is supposed to engage.  Not because it’s the politically correct thing to do, but because the marketplace has fragmented into niches that self-organize around needs, interest, lifestyles, even among one ethnicity.  Which means that agencies like McCann need to have people from these various constituencies around, because it helps everyone become sensitized to the multiple meanings that images can carry.

So is it really any surprise, though, that an ad like this slips out, when Madison Avenue is basically reminiscing about the good ol’ days as portrayed in “Mad Men” (here and here)?

Yeah, it’s 2007.  But, in general, white people are ill-equipped to talk about, let alone deal with, issues of race.  And when they do, they tend to do a piss-poor job of it.  So, issues of race come up and you get two reactions:

1. Ignore it/Don’t say anything
2. Talk about how you really understand racial issues because of all the so-called diversity in your family.  I was in a meeting once where a one woman said, “My family’s Croatian, Romanian and Greek.”  As if that gave her bona fides.  I’m sitting there thinking, “Bitch, nobody sees anything but a white girl.”

Which brings me to the core issue: White privilege.  You muthafuckas are, for the most part, blissfully unaware of the assumptions you make about people and situations, particularly those involving race.  And even if you were, I seriously doubt you’d deal with them honestly. These assumptions certainly play out during the hiring process.  I know, because I’ve been on the receiving end of them.

The growth in the industry will really come when agencies learn how to better serve this browning country of ours.  The first step will be to learn to recognize tired, 20th century notions.

After all, “Brown is the new White.”

Hat tip to Piers at PSFK and the crew at AgencySpy for bringing this to my attention.

Comments

[Great Post]

Great post. A diverse group of people in the ad department would have never approved it. It says a lot about who was signing off on this ridiculous ad.

It's tough to be a black man, even today. But it's tougher still to be a black woman. Prejudice happens because...well, because no one cares about making one bit of sacrifice for the good of everyone else. Just do promise me you will treat women the same way you want others to treat you. Because, at the end of the day, we get the double wammy.

[Jose orellana]

I was trying to find out how many actors portraying Wasps in the show Mad Men are really Jewish but I ended up here. It makes you wonder if the internet promotes even more this short attention span we all increasingly have...
About the ad, with our world history and specially because it is such a recent one I think that it shows ignorance and insensitivity to have a white man towering over six black men. Even though it is the same black man that is being photoshoped six times, the first thing I noticed was of white man with his arms crossed fully dressed in the middle of six black men bowing to him wearing just running suits. A bad, bad choice. Who was the idiot that approved this? The ones responsible were probably white basing it just on the racial make up of this country and who is most willing to be color blind. But you never know. Maybe the ad was green lighted by an Asian for example? I definitely believe they were not black but lets not assume like there's no other scenarios.
This is becoming too long already. My point is the the blogger assumes a bunch of shit and until he or she does not walk in somebody else's shoes should keep his or her mouth closed about what it is to be white nowadays.
I am Mexican but I look European. In Mexico just like in any country were Europeans showed up and stayed people will tend to see at the macro level more European looking people on the top and less at the bottom. But first there is diversity in social classes (whites at the bottom for example), second it is not clear who is white (Salma Hayek is lebanese/white mexican; both Oscar de La Hoya, mexican-american, and Julio cesar chavez are very light skinned to be considered native indigenous mexicans) and third it is such a big country and with so many people that to see that small minority that has blonde, red, or brown hair and that do not have any indigenous blood you either have to have a lot of money or go to the few places where there's more (in the north).
I am one of those few Mexicans that looks predominantly European and that unfortunately came to this country in search of a better life. Since I came to live in neighborhoods in Chicago, San Francisco, and Oakland where I was the only one that looked like me, my experience has been completely different than maybe the blogger can envision from his set interpretation of the world.
Those neighborhoods were violent and racist (yes racist because according to the dictionaries in English, Spanish, and Portuguese not only the powerful can be racist like you imply from your sociology textbook definition...) and often saw how my wife who looks more people expect Latinos to look like was treated differently (with more tolerance and less hostility) than they treated more (the "white boy" I do not understand how can I still be a boy at 36 but I know it is meant as an insult). The ironic thing is that white people treat my wife better too... It must be their white guilt and because I am often ask if I am Russian, I must be a safe target to be treated by whites as an outsider without them being labeled racists. SO much with the white privilege you assume we European looking people share...
SO I do not know your motivations. maybe it is just a rant, you just want to complain, maybe you do want to have a conversation and not just with the people that think like you in terms of tribes. DO you really think that when everybody is brown all problems of "tribalism" are going to magically disarpear. are you that naive and ignorant??? Just take a look at Spain or Great Britain, and notice how the different christian spanish tribes hate each other or how the people that share an island (Britain) reluctantly see each other as one even after centuries of more or less prosperity in all parts of the island (obviously more in england than elsewhere but scotland, and welsch are not poor places either).
Go ahead dream of your Valhalla (to use wagner/nazi terminology) of brown people I could give less of a fuck about any country that has a lot of white people. My kids are not going to have the challenges that I have: they have black hair and features from different continents. No country can short circuit its progress and lick its wounds hoping them to heal overnight. Europe and the other industrialized countries outside of East Asia can all become brown and it will not make things easier. Just go live in a neighborhood where Haitians and blacks compete and interact, or mexicans and puerto ricans but not in the gated communities where people do not interact, but in the buses and metros or corners or non skilled jobs of miami and chicago and you will see that human nature is one. Always creating insurmountable differences before bridges... besides those bridges are a luxury when things are more or less abundant. In Latin America the struggle has always been of social classes more that ethnicities specially because the spaniards and portuguese look so much like north africans or arabs that in mestizos socities it is very hard to figure out who like rafael nadal is a full spaniard and who is mestizo.
I hope you learned something from this bellman that is hoping to return soon to his sunny land south of the border.
I hope your not a coward and erase my message from your blog. I still have something to say even though we are never going to agree (based on the hate I see in you and all the bigots of ALLLLLLL COLORS AND FLAVORS I have met over the years in this country) and unlike you I am just a working class person and a recent immigrant to the increasingly shitty first world.

[Mike]

I love an angry rant about stereotyping that includes broad stereotypes like:

"You muthafuckas are, for the most part, blissfully unaware of the assumptions you make about people and situations, particularly those involving race."

Anyone seen Avenue Q?

[Roberto Cea]

I'd be more concerned about the 3 head-on collisions this image really represents. Mediocre communication.

[Bob van Pelt]

"Looks like a slave ship" seems perfectly apt to me. This is not a dumb mistake, this is deliberate. At that level, everything is deliberate. It is perhaps simply trying to say "we are so above and beyond racism these days, and we are so color blind, we don't even have to be sensitive anymore." Wrong. You always have to be sensitive about issues of race, and encourage diversity in all its forms, forever. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. It needs major exposure.

[Rob Fields]

Craig,

Thanks for stopping by. To answer your question, I think that you have to revist the definition of communication. That is: sender + message + receiver. If any one of these elements fails, then there's no communication. There's a lot of writing about where the roots of racism lie. However, if bunch of people viewed the ad and saw something other than/in addition to what was intended, there's a communications problem, one that stems, I think, from ignorance of the multiple meanings that images can hold.

[Craig]

Does the root of racism lie in the eye of the beholder or in the intent of the speaker (advertiser)?

Is someone who looks at this ad and sees nothing but an ad ignorantly racist or progressively colorblind?

Hmmmmmm...

[Rob Fields]

There's some insight: People of color are sooo much more racist than white people. Riiiight. . .

No, we can't agree that there are racists in all races. The definition of a racist is someone who's in a position to make policy that affects large swaths of a given population. Bigots, yes. But not all of us get to be racists.

What's really sad here is that you've used every comment as an opportunity to deny the validity of my response and reaction to this ad. We will not be able to move the discussion forward because you're steady trying to convince me that I'm wrong. Are you aware that this is a typical white response? "There's no way this could be true! And I see racism from all people." Spare me.

Thanks for stopping by, but I think you should go back to things you more comfortable, and more capable of, talking about.

[Wild Bill]

Thank you for responding to me with a level head and a higher amount of respect than you conveyed in your post. I don't believe our country has as long of a way to go as you think. Just like your post was not focus grouped for white people the intel ad was probably not focus grouped for black people. But every ad does not have to be sensitive and focused to the largest amount of people. I'm sure if intel was publishing an ad in a predominately black customer publication they would have used a different approach.

I think it is a shame that we must cater to different races so as not to offend. The best way would be to cater to a group that we all belong to, Americans (for those of us that live in America.) We were divided in our past and I believe we (Americans) have made huge strives forward in race relations, where we have failed is to reverse course. Personally I see more racism coming from other than white races than I ever see from white people. I know in the past it was the other way around, however I truly believe that as white people improved, other races moved in declared some sort of moral authority, declared that they could not be racists because of the past, and became racists themselves. I really hope we can all agree that their are racists in all races and we can simple marginalize that small minority of racists and those of us that are able to leave the past where it belongs (in the past) can move on and see each other for our strengths instead of our weaknesses.

I personally do not see the racism you see in this ad, kind of like I suspect you do not see racism in the fact that there are more blacks playing in the NBA than whites. I see nothing wrong with what some people might see as inequality in the NBA. I enjoy seeing the best players, if the majority of those better players are black then great, it doesn't make it racism.

[Rob Fields]

Bill, your being reductive doesn't change the facts: It was a dumb mistake, and it happened because there's ZERO sensitivity to how anyone but a small group of insiders would view the ad. And there's a lack of sensitivity because the industry, by and large, only pays lip service to the issue of diversity and staffing that better reflects the diversity of the many publics it has to engage on behalf of its clients.

And let's be clear: I don't hate you or anyone for that matter. In fact, I don't even know you. However, I do have a level of frustration at whoever created dumb shit like this. I mean, it IS 2007, isn't it? Why are should I have to be faced with something like this? Particularly from an industry that traffics in creating meaning through images?

You might begin by asking yourself why you're so unwilling to consider my POV. The ad DOES trade on certain stereotypes. Your acknowledging it doesn't change it. I saw something, as did other people. Because YOU don't see anything wrong with it, does that make us wrong?

Because this country really doesn't like to talk about race and diversity issue, there will be many more uncomfortable-- painful,even--discussions. But they're necessary, even if they're said in a way that people like you find difficult to hear. They're necessary because this wonderful country of ours has a long way to go to live up to the ideals it espouses.

[Wild Bill]

You are right, next time the should only use one black person in their ad to every 13 white people. Did you ever stop to ask yourself that the reason why you find racism in this ad is because you are a racist?

Since you are already under the assumption that I am not honest because I am white, feel free to use me as an example of the white "muthafuckas" that you hate. Have a nice day.

[May]

While I agree that this ad is completely fucked up, it looks like all of the sprinters are black only because they just used one model. Goes to show that saving a buck or two sometimes is so not worth it.