US FMCG giant PepsiCo has pulled a controversial Mountain Dew ad - which showed a battered Caucasian woman facing a police line-up of African American men and a goat - after being accused as "the most racist commercial in history" and "offensive" to assault victims.
According to US website Yahoo! Shine,
the ad showed a bruised Caucasian woman trying to
identify her attacker out of a police line-up of five African
American men. She is backed by a Caucasian police officer who tells
her to "nail this little sucker".
Among the suspects is a
goat, which has featured in other Mountain Dew commercials,
intimidating the woman with stereotypical African American slang such
as "keep your mouth shut, I'm going to do ya when I get out,"
"ya better not snitch on a playa". The woman then runs out
the room screaming. It was one in a series created by African
American rapper, 'Tyler The Creator', for the company.
The ad has caused a huge stir on blogs and social media, with US lecturer Dr. Boyce Watkins dubbing it "the most racist commercial in history" on a post on African American website, Your Black World. Watkins slammed it as setting a "new low for corporate racism" and their draw on stereotypes was "beyond disgusting". "This doesn’t even include the fact that the company has put black men on par with animals," he said.
However, the company swiftly responded to the backlash, pulling the ad and apologising. PepsiCo spokeswoman Jen Ryan told Yahoo! Shine: "We apologise for this video and take full responsibility. We have removed the video from all Mountain Dew channels and have been informed that Tyler is removing it from his channels as well."
The controversy comes just days after car brand Hyundai in the UK removed and apologised for an ad which showed a man attempting to commit suicide in his car, after copping much criticism.
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