In Schweppe’s painfully self-aware ad, two savages—who look like they’re in blackface and only utter “Mooga Booga”—poison a white adventurer and take his drink. Cut to a studio where two black men dressed like savages reveal that they’re actually (twist!) refined, articulate vocal actors, one of whom walks with a swish. Family Guy-style racism and homophobia sure do make us thirsty!
Via Copyranter
bagooka
Schweppes sounds like a brand of baby wipe.
Steven
An awful drink makes an awful ad? Seems fitting.
JayKay
Oh come off it, that was at least chuckle-worthy.
Jack
I don’t think that was homophobic at all. The actor was portraying a snobby, upperclass person. He wasn’t swishing so much as walking like he was better than everyone else. I can’t believe that the article writer missed that. It involves very basic comprehension skills.
Tim
Sprite already did this commercial like 15 years ago:
http://youtu.be/pwSOfW-9jXw
ChattyKathy
Not really homophobic, but without a doubt racist, and not “chuckle-worthy”.
kylew
I thought it was hilarious. And it was not making a negative commentary on either the race or mannerisms of the black guys, so neither racist nor homophobic.
Portia
If anyone remembers the cartoons of Heckle and Jekyl the two crows.
This is exactly what they were doing.
Sceth
How is this racist?
ChattyKathy
Well imagine if this was a couple of Middle Easterners, and instead of boarding a plane with explosives taped to their chests, it was a case of ice cold Miller! Get it!
Black men in the media are constantly portrayed as violent, uncivilized subhumans, and this ad perpetuates the notion that if you don’t fall into the archetypal black male, then you must be some uppity pansy. However the greater problem that is revealed with ads such as this is that they get created because of the lack of minority representation in the boardrooms and in the creative process as a whole.
Persistent negative images of any ethnic, racial, etc. group are damaging. To think this isn’t negative to the black community is either willfully ignorant, or unknowingly contentious.
Rick
How is this “homophobic”? They don’t even reference sexuality. If anything, Daniel, it’s homophobic to automatically interpret the “swishyness” as gay.
I’m not black, so I don’t feel entitled to speak about any sort of racism, but nothing in this commercial should even begin to offend gay people IMO.
td
How is it racist? How can you watch that and not see it as racist? It’s shocking!
btseven
Damn, the one on the right was hot!
Tackle
There is nothing homophobic nor racist about this commercial. The one who is racist is this writer Daniel Villarreal. Reminds me of the people who come on here and cannot wait to use the N-word where there is a story involving “one” Black person who said something stupid,all in the name of an so-called analogy. This writer could not wait to throw out words like, blackface, Mooga Booga,and Savages. To try to stir up conflict. Having resentment towards Blacks is not gonna make you feel better about yourself Daniel.
Hal Shipman
@Portia – And Heckle and Jeckyl were cartoon versions of Amos and Andy. Your point being … ?