Racist Super Bowl Ad? Jamaica Embraces Controversial Volkswagen Commercial. Are PC Liberals over sensitive and Race obsessed ?
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KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Jamaica is embracing a controversial Super Bowl commercial that depicts a white office worker from the U.S. Midwest feigning the Caribbean island's lilting patois accent to display a cheerful, upbeat outlook.
Some U.S. critics have described the pregame Super Bowl ad from Volkswagen of America as offensive and culturally insensitive, apparently seeing the commercial that hit the web on Monday as an echo of segregation-era depictions of white people posing as happy-go-lucky black folk. Jamaica's population is predominantly black.
On NBC's "The Today Show," Barbara Lippert, editor-at-large at mediapost.com, said she believed the commercial was racist because it was "just saying that black people are happy." New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow said during an appearance on CNN that the advertisement was like "blackface with voices.
"But the charged reaction has met with puzzlement in Jamaica, which has very visible white, Asian, Middle Eastern and mixed-race minorities that also often speak with the local accent.
The island's government has endorsed the commercial, which shows an ebullient white worker from the U.S. state of Minnesota trying to cheer up glum colleagues with a Jamaican patois accent because he is so happy with his Volkswagen. At the start of the commercial, he paraphrases the lyrics to late reggae icon Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" as he tells his co-workers: "No worries, mon. Everyting will be all right."
Top Opinion
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Jackie G - Poker Playing Pa... 2013/02/03 13:28:52
1. Racist ad / No
2. PC Liberals over sensitive / yes
3. Race obsessed...ehhh...both yes and no.
If anyone has ever been to Jamaica you would know that Jamaicans do really come off like this. Great island.
I like the commercial.
Watch TV commercials and here is what you should notice. Many commericials have a Goofus and Gallant format. Goofus is always a white male. Gallant is either a female or other ethnicity. Here's a recent one, the Wendy's add about their value menu. The white male bought the poor choice from the competetior. The female bought the smart choice, and another black female called the white male, in effect, a moron.
So if you have to have a Goofus in a commercial, the only acceptable choice is a white male. No PC outrage? That's odd. Thought PC folks were all about equality blah blah blah...
The people of Jamaica are fine with the ad, so who died and made liberals gods of good taste and the dogs guarding the gates of racism?
It's about time that the folks who holler "racism" at every opportunity reap the negatives that they sow and either be ignored, laughed at, or embarrassed for their own bad behavior.