As has become customary in this YouTube era, companies no longer wait for the Super Bowl to actually air their Super Bowl ads, which is why any outrage from PornHub’s executives would be about as real as a Faye Reagan orgasm. At the very least, many companies have started leaking “teaser ads” – which is wholly absurd – like Mercedes’ Kate Upton car wash ad or Volkswagen’s Star Wars dogs, but most companies have just said, “F*ck it, here’s the whole commercial” because they love when bros like me write about them.
Speaking of Volkswagen, the German car company’s Super Bowl 47 ad hit the cat tubes earlier this week and it already has more than 3 million views on YouTube. Of course, it’s not because the commercial is any good – it’s okay, I guess – it’s because people think that white people doing Jamaican voices is racist.
Gee, I wonder if Volkswagen’s ad team saw all of this attention coming when they filmed this commercial.
Of the ad, the common criticism seems to be:
“Blackface with voices,” declared Charles Blow, a New York Times columnist, in an appearance on CNN just a few hours after Volkswagen released the spot Monday. Veteran ad critic Barbara Lippert, on the “Today” show, branded it “so racist.” (Via the Washington Post)
However, as with any tense racial situation that involves car commercials, there is a voice of reason. Fortunately, this voice of reason is Jamaican reggae star Sean Paul, who told TMZ that this commercial is 100% irie, mon. Sorry, I’ll show myself out.
Current Grammy nominee Sean tells TMZ he doesn’t understand why VW’s catching heat for the spot — featuring a white guy speaking in a Jamaican accent — because it’s “just entertainment.”
SP added it’s in good taste, and “to me it’s no different than the Italian accents in ‘The Sopranos’ or the English accent in Guy Ritchie’s movies.”
Yeah, it’s no different than all of those British guys in Guy Ritchie movies speaking with British accents. Unless, wait… is he calling Brad Pitt racist? My whole world is in a downward spiral.
It’s not just Sean Paul, though. The guys from Inner Circle also have Volkswagen’s back.
VDub also got an irie review from Inner Circle — aka the “Cops” theme guys — who told us “duplication is the highest form of flattery, and our culture is a happy culture with good vibes.”
Proving that point, they said … “We say to VW: ONE, ONE, ONE LOVE. Anyone who say dat racist better ask themselves…whatchu gonna do when we come for you?”
I don’t get what the big deal is. How is this commercial racist yet this isn’t?
Hell, have the people complaining about this commercial even heard of Chet Haze? If anything, the most offensive thing about this commercial is Volkswagen trying to sell Beetles to men.
