In keeping with the arguably dumb decision to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November with Thanksgiving, MultiCultClassics presents advertising and marketing featuring descendants of the true founding fathers (and mothers).
Ralph Lauren displayed cultural cluelessness in classic style.
Victoria’s Secret exposed insensitive ignorance on the catwalk.
Folks were not feeling happy with Pharrell and Elle.
Natural American Spirit appears to be smoking something strange by insisting the brand shows its Native American spirit via philanthropic support.
The Washington Redskins fumbled by saluting Thanksgiving, prompting a salute from MultiCultClassics.
The Land O’ Lakes Indian Maiden escaped one White advertising agency, only to be taken captive by another.
All of which warrants closing out with a little cry.
The chances of the American ad industry showing any sort of sensitivity to Indian culture is somewhere between 0%, and 0.0001%.
ReplyDeleteLet's look at the math. Black population of the US is about 13% or so. And they make up just 1% or so of ad agency creatives who put together these campaigns, if that.
Native American population nationwide is about 1%. So it stands to figure, if you use black participation as a guideline, there's maybe, what, 3 Indian creatives in the entire nation?
We're talking about an industry that routinely grabs Italians and puts them in buckskin for photo campaigns and pretends they're Indian. They just don't care.
Speaking of ad agencies screwing with indigenous culture:
ReplyDeleteOgilvy Mexico (parent company WPP) is under fire right now for creating a racist campaign that has rich white kids “saving” poor brown Indians by bringing them Coke.
If you use Google Translate or speak Spanish the anti-Coke comments on the Coca Cola YouTube site are brutal.
http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/11/27/coca-cola-ad-in-mexico-commercializes-and-legitimizes-white-savior-complex/
I don't get the black Coke commercial either where it ends with a black teen buying an old white guy a Coke (paying for his Coke at the register IIRC).
ReplyDelete