Metro PCS Begins Airing Racist Commercials
How in any way is this appropriate? It makes Indians appear stuck in the 80s, in love with distasteful patterns and crappy techno. They’re also characterized as straight-up nerds, with combovers, uninspired mustaches, and Dwight Schrute-style glasses. I can think of less than ten instances in my entire life, when I’ve met an Indian who sounded or dressed like the ones in this video.
Besides the racist undertones, the writing isn’t even FUNNY. That would make this video go over a lot easier. Before you tell me to get a sense of humor, I know how to laugh at my own race. I do all the time. This, however, is just in bad taste. You could even go so far as to say that this is indicative of how America is obsessed with superiority and abuses India for outsourcing purposes – and, in this case, cheap laughs.
(Thanks, Henry!)
Filed under: Uncategorized | 17 Comments
Tags: ad, APIA, video
Interesting that your own analysis identifies what you seem to be missing. These are characters, not actual reference to a race as a whole. The audience knows it’s 2009 not the 80s, no one listens to crappy techno and nerds haven’t existed in this form since Booger won the burping contest in the movies. Bad taste? certainly, but made specifically to catch your attention. Racist? If you yourself have met less than ten people who typify this characature, how can you possibly designate it a stereotype? Wouldn’t a true stereotype make fun of the culture? What cultural references do you see? Apart from the accent, what identifies these two as Indian?
I would ask that you look to Desi sites or other Indian commentators for your answer. You won’t find any negative comments. Apparently the Indian culture knows how to laugh at itself too.
I submit that the commercial is intended to be so tacky that it stops you to watch, grabs your attention and hopefully introduces you to two characters that I bet will become YouTube celebrities. and sell a few phones along the way.
Isn’t that the goal of advertising?
Yeah, I’ve seen less than ten people walking around dressed in blackface, so I guess that’s ok too.
And if you think getting some kind of tacit approval by the Indian community makes this ok, you may want to consider your own racial biases. Every single racist out there speaks about how “they all agree with me, too.”
>These are characters, not actual reference to a race as a whole.
This comment shows complete ignorance of modern racism. Flagrant racism explicitly encompassing an entire race hardly exists anymore. This commercial is precisely the form modern racism takes. Using members of a race and developing ridiculous caricatures based on stereotypes assoicated with that race. If you don’t understand how that’s racist, I invite you read a book (almost any book) on modern racism.
>You won’t find any negative comments.
Flat wrong, do some research.
>Isn’t that the goal of advertising?
Boils down to saying: it’s effective, so its not racist.
My friend worked on the ads and the agency creative was Indian.
They Did Hispanic ads and they had a Hispanic Creative as well.
That’s interesting; I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info.
I wanna throw back a question at you: is it okay for someone to tease at their own race, just because they ARE of that race? I do believe that it’s generally more acceptable for an African-American to mock his own culture than it is for someone who doesn’t belong to that culture to. But does this not also have possible consequences of misleading an audience’s perceptions of a race?
This commercial is racist and sterotypes people of Indian origin! I’m not laughing at this one. What is so funny about someone’s accent? Why does the character Apu exist in the Simpsons? Because of his accent! Why don’t we see fun being made of people with Chinese accents?
I don’t know if your last question refers specifically to Metro PCS, but if you’re referring to the Simpsons, keep in mind the Japanese sushi chef, who, of course, also teaches martial arts or kung fu or something. His restaurant’s name is advertised using a stereotypical Asian typeface, and he speaks with an accent. Chinese/Asian people are made fun of all the time too.
stop using metro pcs ..any way they suck
This ad turns my stomach.
I love these ads!!!!!!
Outsourcing jobs to India is killing this Country…
I am Indian. I hate this Ad so much. Shut up AD, I know a lot of people who are offended by this, and you have no idea what you’re talking about. There are several Indian references. Don’ blame INDIANS on outsourcing just because we’re smart enough to get the jobs, wouldn’t be it better if you blame the EMPLOYERS who won’t try to look for stuff in their own country if you hate it so fucking much.
You should start a petition. For the sake of the Indian minority in this country, start a petition.
First of all, nobody can compare racist characters in popular cartoon series to this Metro PCS ad. Why? Because cartoons are applying their racism over multiple characters. Everyone feels equally bashed, so we can all laugh. As far as it being ok as long as Indians produced the commercial, here’s the deal. If there was a wink-of-the-eye moment; a feeling that Indians were in on the joke, then it would’ve been fine and maybe funny. If Eddie Murphy was dressed like a pimp, eating fried chicken, he could make it funny and the message would be that hate is wrong. But we don’t have any of that here. All we have is “hey look, we’re stupid ass, middle-aged, hairy, can’t dance, funny-talking, foreign Indians.” Try doing that with the Black or Jewish community.
I got so furious when this ad was on the tv, I immediately googled “racist metro pcs ad” and found this thread. I think this country is way too politically correct and appreciate intelligent humor. That said, this ad series is blatantly racist and offends me as a human being. If a commercial showed a Jew picking up pennies off a sidewalk (I am Jewish) it wouldn’t be as racist as these commercials. The only reason these commercials are not drawing more anger is the double standard that racism only applies to offending certain demographic groups. I wish the Anti-Defamation League or the NAACP would speak out against these vile ads.
totally agree with you. it’s blatantly racist, and possibly even worse, it’s NOT EVEN FUNNY. i mean, what exactly do the 80s references have to do with anything? if it was done by an “indian” ad agency, well then those are some culturally-out-of-touch ad execs they hired. at least if it’d been funny, i could silently snicker to myself while outwardly being pissed off. but it doesn’t even give me that pleasure. FAIL.
Look! You were linked: http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10005633/is-metropcss-new-commercial-racist-many-say-ranjit-and-chad-are-indian-tech-help-sterotypes/
Good job and
a) i don’t get the ad, what does the kid on the scooter thing effective?
b) to the point it’s offensive? i don’t know. does it smell of stinky tofu (and not the good kind)? definitely
c) now i’m scared that there’s a latino one.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.
there has not been this type of obnoxious, hate-filled racism (under the guise of humor) since the 1960′s peter sellers anti-indian manifesto, ‘the party.’
whats sad is that i even have to clarify this by saying, ‘i have a sense of humor,’ in fear of white liberals who are quick to label indian anger ‘political correctness.’
yep, its always easy to criticize us coloreds about being politically correct the minute we voice our grievance about being the butt of white america’s jokes.
truth be told – i actually work as a top-level comedy writer in NYC, and love comedy shows and all humor, the more rancid the better.
these metro pcs commercials, however, are not funny. they are ignorant.
IGNORANT.
is it funny for a kool-aid commercial to show blacks eating watermelon and talking like buckwheat?? this is 2010, folks. this kind of crap is unacceptable. we got rid of the ‘coon-aunt-jemima-mammy’ black stereotype years ago. how long will it take for indian caricatures to end??