100 is quite a big number in some contexts. 100 percent. 100 Krispy Kremes. But in others - first 100 ladies free entry, 100 pieces of chicken at a family get together is positively tiny! Especially when you consider that it's the number of complaints lodged about the Trident "saahhf" (Jamo accent) adverts. Everyone I know's had an opinion. My friend T said:
I think it's out of order. But as usual, black people don't voice their opinions. Blatantly mocking us. Called it Trident as well (black on black). Why?
So hang on. Black people don't go skiing, black people don't voice their opinions. So what DO we do? When Lemar lost out on Fame Academy (as a self-confessed fan, I feel it was one of the biggest travesties in UK history), with Maria's shock exit on the X Factor, we were the first to voice our opinions then.
But was the advert racist? A dictionary definiton shows racism to be 'the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics...and this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority.' Someone somewhere must have the said superiority, as the ads are still on. I don't think it's racitst, just ill timed. With the spate of shootings trying to be appeased by a branch off of the police force also named Trident, marketing chould've let the idea marinate for a bit - black jamrock man, Trident gum, Trident force, black on black crime...hmm. Far-fetched, but these are the parallels my peers have drawn all the same.
So you've got a black man doing some dead out "comedy" routine. Then in consequent ads, you've got a middle-class white man and woman with Jam accents harping on about 'sensations' to their white counterparts. Again, I don't think it's racist, just way out of date and non-sensical. How're they still trying to evoke the quintessential Brit as a reserved, stiff upper-lipped tea drinker when we all saw typical Brit Gobby Goody shouting her mouth off on Big Brother (157,000 complaints I might add. Now the 100 really does seem insignificant)? If everyon'e so PC, and this was our Shilpa Shetty moment, where were our front page news spreads? Our Sky News Live links to the West Indies with the rastas having a go? Oh, I know, Advertising Standards is an 0901 number, and you're on T Mobile's five day pass, right? Is that what it was?
1 comment:
The first time I saw the advert, I thought 'not another black person doing anything(normally stupid)for money'. But after seeing it a few times, the race issue doesn't come into it, I feel the whole advert is unneccessary. You get so distracted by the actions of the actors that the selling points of the product are being missed.
MASTICATION FOR THE NATION.
Now unless you have a dictionary near by......????!!!!
The main and most important complaint about this gum, is it's name TRIDENT, which most people associate with the police group that solve black on black crimes.
Isn't there any type of copyright law that forbids the name to be used in this way?
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