MOUNTAIN DEW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Day Phone:
RACISM CLAIMS AT MOUNTAIN DEW GENERATE PUBLIC BACKLASH
Winchester County, New York (May 1, 2013)_ On Wednesday May 1, 2013, Jamal Henderson who is the senior brand manager at Mountain Dew was faced with a situation that generated a lot of negative reactions from the members of the public.
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What happened is that the company, a PepsiCo brand, ran a commercial named The Creator that involved partnership with Tyler, an African-American rapper, featuring a Mountain Dew. The advert showed a White woman on crutches being implored by a law enforcement officer to identify the goat in a police lineup made up of Black men. The goat made several remarks at the woman including that ‘snitches get stitches’, remarks that were considered by many who viewed the video as being offensive for portraying racial stereotypes and violence against women.
The main problem or issue involved in this situation is that of racial stereotypical portrayal of Black American men as being violent towards women. It portrays the company as portraying racist attitude towards its customers who are of African origin. It also offends women because it portrays them as being subjects of battery and violence. Another issue involved here is that of the confusion that surrounds the question of which the battered woman portrayed in the commercials was. According to Waller, offensive advertising negatively affects the public and consumer attitude towards a company (286). Moreover, Wallace, Christy and Fam (330) observe that most commercial advertisements fall foul of cultural and racial sensitivities thus the need for companies to make amends to protect themselves from public uproar
Some of the potential audiences that PepsiCo needs to consider when developing this response include Black American men and White women. To the Black American men, the company should seek to apologize for portraying them as being violent towards women while to the White women, the company should respond to the issue of women being portrayed as weak and subjects of violence.
The purpose and goal of this press release is to correct the rather racist image that the advert run by the company created among a majority of its customers who must have felt offended by the language of the advert.
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Works Cited
Waller, David S. "Attittudes towards offensive advertising: A Australian study." Journal of Consumer Marketing 16.3 (2009): 288-294. Print.
Waller, David S., Timothy Christy and Kim Shyan Fam. "Perceptions of offensive advertising elements: A China-U.S. comparison." Journal of East-West Business 14 (2008): 325-343. Print
