9860: Princesses & Prejudices.

For Valentine’s Day, Disney presented culture- and color-coordinated candy: White Cinderella is Vanilla while Black Tiana is Watermelon.

From Sociological Images.

9842: Insults In Fashion At Urban Outfitters.

From The New York Post…

Seeing red over insulting green

By Gerry Shields

WASHINGTON — Four New York congressional delegation members got their Irish up yesterday over tasteless St. Patrick’s Day merchandise being sold by Urban Outfitters.

The store is selling hats that include the image of a stick figure vomiting shamrocks. Another item is a beer jug labeled “Leprechaun Piss.” A third display is an Irish T-shirt celebrating drunkenness (pictured above).

Signing onto the protest were New York Democratic Reps. Joseph Crowley, Carolyn Maloney and Eliot Engel and Republican Rep. Peter King (R-LI).

A call placed to Urban Outfitters yesterday afternoon was not returned.

9821: Miracle Whip White.

Adweek presented the latest Miracle Whip commercial scheduled to air during the Academy Awards broadcast. The spot is awful for reasons that go beyond its clichéd, contrived writing and art direction. Specifically, its Whiteness makes the message irrelevant to contemporary America—and underscores the cultural cluelessness of the commercial’s creators.

9806: More Draftfcbullshit.

Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau are still churning out questionable content for The New America series. The latest press release publishing—A Racial Melting Pot?—was authored by Draftfcb Strategic Planning Director Luiz Salles. The piece opens with, “For over 200 years, Americans have proudly referred to our nation as a ‘melting pot’—the intimation being that America is a shining example of the prosperity that can result from divergent cultures coming together to form a homogeneous and (hopefully) more harmonious common culture.” The statement displays a certain sense of revisionist history. According to Wikipedia, while the melting metaphor has been around since the 1780s, it didn’t become popular in America until the 1908 play titled, “The Melting Pot.” Native Americans, Blacks and other non-White citizens have not “proudly” used the term for over 200 years. Indeed, many minorities have rejected the phrase, favoring metaphors like “mosaic” and “salad bowl” to identify the nation. Don’t know where the cross-cultural advocates at Draftfcb might stand on the matter. Regardless, it boggles the mind that a concept such as “melting pot” would be addressed by an agency from Madison Avenue, where non-Whites have been systematically rejected for over 70 years. And the outrageous factor is compounded when considering the agency, Draftfcb, remains among the most culturally clueless in the industry. It’s a wonder the piece didn’t cite Schoolhouse Rock as its primary reference source.

9778: Pit Bulls And Bullshit.

At Advertising Age, Bob Garfield published a pretty amusing editorial on the McDonald’s incident featuring a local radio spot that offended pit bull advocates. As expected, the column managed to further piss off dog lovers, inspiring initial comments that will likely increase once Garfield’s regular workweek audience views the piece. But here’s a particularly ignorant one:

James Heike
Chicago, IL

Really disappointed in Garfield’s bumbling response here. Associating Pit Bulls with aggressive behavior is as ignorant as associating African American’s (sic) with criminal behavior. By proportion, the crime rate for African American’s (sic) is far higher than that of caucasians (sic). Does that make shaking hands with any African American dangerous? Of course not. While he provides no evidence, let’s say for the sake of argument that there are statistics out there that say there are higher rates of attacks by Pit Bulls, does that mean Pit Bulls are inherently dangerous? This neglects the fact that there are higher rates of abuse towards Pit Bulls, driving certain dogs to be aggressive. When was the last time you saw a Black Lab fighting ring? The bottom line is the media absolutely gives Pit Bulls a bad name and advertisements like McDonald’s further damage their reputation fueling unfair breed specific laws.

Wow. Wanna believe this moron is not a member of the advertising industry. Unfortunately, his cluelessness depicts an accurate profile of the modern-day Mad Man.

Mr. Heike does a nice job of displaying insensitivity by indirectly criticizing and stereotyping African Americans during Black History Month. Was the later reference to Black Labs a Freudian slip?

It’s easy to imagine Heike behind the keyboard, filled with delusions of intellectual grandeur as he drafted his passionate argument. Too bad it’s all rooted in flawed and incomplete thinking.

For starters, Heike obviously missed the Black History Month celebration co-created by Adweek, Draftfcb and the U.S. Census Bureau; otherwise, he might have noted the 27.4 percent poverty rate for Blacks. Nearly every researcher on Earth recognizes the direct link between poverty and crime.

More importantly, the trials and tribulations of pit bulls hardly reflect those of Blacks in America. Contrary to the insistence of organizations such as PETA, animals do not share the same rights as humans. To use Heike-like logic, NFL star Michael Vick was charged and convicted of illegal acts involving pit bulls—including actually killing dogs. Vick dealt with fines, faced protestors and spent time in prison for his crimes. Yet he ultimately and officially paid his debt to society. Now, if Vick had been found guilty of running slave rings where Blacks were forcibly used in evil fight clubs, and Vick actually murdered Blacks in the process, he would not be a leading NFL quarterback right now. The man would have received a court-sanctioned death sentence.

To be clear, MultiCultClassics is not seeking to diminish the positions of pit bull fans. But please keep matters in proper perspective, folks. And show some fucking respect during Black History Month.

9732: Is Ageism Getting Old?

Advertising Age published a lengthy piece titled, “Aging in Adland: The Gray-Hair Phobia That’s Hindering Older Execs.” The piece spotlights the trials and tribulations of 56-year-old adman Dave Shea, essentially hinting at the ageism rampant on Madison Avenue. It’s an old story that increasingly gains media attention with the graying of Mad Men. And of course, these tales inspire comment threads featuring lots of anger and frustration.

Can’t help but think Shea is hurting his cause by posing with a copy of Ogilvy On Advertising, surrounded by classic campaign paraphernalia. He may as well have been clutching James Webb Young’s How To Become An Advertising Man while clacking away on a Corona Sterling typewriter and humming jingle concepts.

Back in 2008, MultiCultClassics presented a series titled, “Until The Boomers Die.” Ironically, the effort was short-lived, with only two entries here and here. Yet the goal was to examine the generational-rooted issues that are snowballing in an industry purporting to be on the cutting edge of culture. Like it or not, Madison Avenue isn’t just a Boy’s Club—it’s a Young Boy’s Club. Hell, add “White” to the list of adjectives too.

One stereotypical comment left at the Ad Age story reads, “…[Ageism] is code for discrimination. People who shudder at sexism or racism are often quite comfortable with ageism. Why?”

Well, mostly because the overwhelming majority of alleged ageism victims comprise the primary source of our industry’s sexism and racism—as well as the full spectrum of isms that have stifled progress for several decades. The proverbial shoe is on the other foot, turnabout is fair play, what goes around comes around, etc. Although the new casualties prefer to label it reverse discrimination.

Cultural cluelessness can lead to flawed reasoning and peculiar terminology.