Advertising Age reported on a 12-year-old Diesel advertisement that reappeared in New York, prompting outrage for its racist imagery—as well as a lame apology from its racist creator. The details are below, but two points are worth noting:
1. The responsible White advertising agency—Anomaly—proffered a formulaic mea culpa that displays their insincerity. Specifically, there is a lack of accountability in the phrase, “We apologize for the harm caused through our work.” Um, work doesn’t create itself. People with integrity would have stated, “We apologize for the harm we caused.” For an enterprise that declares that it’s not an ad agency, the place sure acts like a White advertising agency.
2. The scenario provided Anomaly an opportunity to boast that the Diesel advertisement was part of a Cannes Grand Prix-winning campaign. That Cannes awarded racist shit in 2010 and excluded Black Brazilians in 2022 underscores how the awards organization continues to be culturally clueless—there’s been zero progress on the French Riviera in over a decade.
In Adland, racist transgressions are never an anomaly.
Racist Diesel Ad With Native American Image Resurfaces, Sparking Agency Apology
Out-of-home ad resurfaced by a social media user was part of a 2010 Cannes Grand Prix-winning campaign
By Tony Hao
Anomaly has apologized for a 12-year-old Diesel ad that recently resurfaced in a New York subway station and drew social media fire for its racist depiction of Native Americans.
The ad, from the 2010 “Be Stupid” campaign that earned a Cannes Lions Outdoor Grand Prix, reappeared due to a July 8 TikTok video from user @witchytwitchytv. The 40-second video reacted to the Diesel poster, which appears to have been uncovered in a New York subway station during construction. Subtitled “Came across this racist advertisement on West 4th St.,” the video opens on a portion of the ad, featuring a white man wearing what appears to be a traditional Native American headdress, holding a bow and arrow, with a spaceship-like vehicle in the background. The campaign slogan reads, “Be Stupid.”
“I know it’s difficult for some people to treat Natives with basic dignity and respect, but this really goes above and beyond,” the TikTok video creator says. In the video, she goes to Diesel’s website where she fails to find information on the campaign but does land on the brand’s code of ethics. “Talks a lot about respecting people from different cultures and backgrounds, and even, quote, ‘committed to ensuring the utmost consideration is given to the recognition and safeguarding of dignity, freedom, and equality of human beings,’” she reads. She concludes the video emphasizing the ad’s juxtaposition of “a caricature of Native Americans” next to the “Be Stupid” slogan.
The comment section under the video was flooded with criticism, with the majority of the users tagging Diesel and demanding an explanation or an apology. One top comment inquired about the ad agency behind this campaign, and the uploader responded “Anomaly.”
One week after the posting of the TikTok video, non-profit news organization Indian Country Today released a statement from the organization Ikiya Collective, demanding “Diesel pull down the harmful racist ‘Be Stupid’ campaign appropriating Native culture.” “Native communities experience higher rates of suicide compared to all other racial groups in the U.S.,” the statement reads. “Racism undeniably plays a role in the mental health of Indigenous peoples, as well as plays a part in the lack of our access to mental health care.”
Anomaly’s apology, posted on Instagram on July 19, noted, “An ad Anomaly created in 2010 was unearthed during construction at a New York City subway stop. It is offensive and insensitive, especially to Native American and Indigenous communities. We apologize for the harm caused through our work.” The statement continues to acknowledge that despite its age, the campaign nevertheless exposed “the need for greater diversity, inclusion, and equity—then and today.”
A spokesperson from New York-based Anomaly explained to Ad Age that after the agency discovered the ad had been unearthed on July 12, the media group that had originally put the ad up worked with New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority to remove it the following day. The space where the ad had hung had been covered by vending machines and became exposed after the machines were removed for construction. The spokesperson also reiterated Anomaly’s apology, noting that the agency also addressed the issue internally and that it remains “in the process of identifying next steps for accountability and action that are most beneficial to Native American and Indigenous communities.”
Diesel did not respond by press time.
The incident shines a light on how social media can amplify dated marketing messages, so brands and agencies must be prepared to answer for them.
When it was first introduced, the ad from Diesel, which was famous for deliberately provocative advertising, did not call attention for its depiction of Native Americans. The “Be Stupid” campaign, which extended across outdoor, print and digital, originally aimed to portray the word “stupid” as something positive, “reimagining it as a label for ‘daring, heart-driven, acts’” and a ‘relentless pursuit of a regret-free life,’” as reported by Ad Age’s Creativity in 2010. The campaign was filled with edgy, sometimes cryptic images of young people doing bizarre things, with copy elaborating on the campaign platform.
The jury that awarded the campaign an Outdoor Grand Prix at Cannes in 2010 described the work as “brave.”
It’s unclear how the ad found in the subway was meant to communicate the “Be Stupid” philosophy. The costume of the model alone is enough to take issue with, but the pairing of the image and words out of context of the greater campaign makes it even more problematic.
The campaign did draw some negative attention at the time—but for another reason. The ad was banned in the U.K. by the Advertising Standards Authority for being encouraging “antisocial” behavior, citing an ad of a woman pointing her camera inside her bikini bottom as well as another ad featuring another woman flashing her breasts at a CCTV camera. At the time, Anomaly was Diesel’s agency of record, and the two parties ended their partnership in 2010. In 2017, the fashion brand reappointed Anomaly to run its global advertising account, only to drop it 10 months later for Publicis Italy, which continues to work with the brand.
More than a decade after its creation, however, the ad stirs strong emotions.
When asked for comment, Michael Gray, founder of Billings, Montana-based G&G Advertising, the first Native American-owned and operated agency, called the ad “offensive, unbelievable. ... The minute [when Anomaly and Diesel] started involving race was when they went wrong.” A Native American himself, Gray noted that by featuring inauthentic Native American clothing of “Halloween store” costume quality, the ad reinforces negative stereotypes against Native Americans. “Stuff you create is not going to be made in a silo,” Gray said. “Imagine if this is Black face and the uproar it’s going to have. But it’s a Native American face—it slides through. We’re seen as the silent minority in this country.”
Understanding that the ad was not made recently, Gray still questioned how such an ad was not intercepted before its launch. “[The] art director, the copywriters, the executive director, the client, the photographers, the actor, the makeup artist,” he said. “All of them touching that one ad. [Not] one of them raised their hands to say, ‘Don’t you think that’s offensive to people?’”
Gray was pleased, however, to learn that Anomaly had released a statement of apology and sees the incident as an opportunity for people of color in the marketing industry to step up and lead the conversation. “We can’t just wait for another George Floyd to talk about how minorities are treated in this country,” he said.
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