Do you find this racist?

The lady (Naomi Campbell) doth protest too much, methinks.

Naomi Campbell is renown for overreacting. I believe she's just using this opportunity for free media attention.

not so much racist, but I can certainly see Ms. Campbell being peeved.

She came out rather badly in the whole blood diamond scandal. It can't do her image any good to have people reminded of that.

Ok, I meant to comment on this before submitting.

My first impression when I started to read this article was my mind zeroing in on the word "Milk", which as we know is normally very light in color.

This story drew me back to a time I was formally reprimanded at work for comparing a really beautiful woman to Whitney Houston in looks, because, well, she looked very much like Whitney Houston. She looks nothing like Angelica Houston, or Angelina Jolie.

However, I could definatley see Angelica, or Angelina, being compared to rich chocolate in an advertisement, and I wouldn't have to wonder at all over the comparison.

Sheesh.

Ahhh....yes, the blood diamond scandal.

Now THAT makes sense.

and since we're on Cadbury ads, I'd like to share







gawd, I love European/Brit ads

Wow, those kids she have rhythm, even though they're white.

people are always looking for SOMETHING to offend them it seems

Stop standing on my neck woman.

its YOU who are oppressing ME...

im brown remember? im always the victim! its default

Geez you all are gullible. How could this be any more transparent?

Cadbury is paying Naomi handsomely behind the scenes for this stunt.

Some ad exec working for Cadbury is very pleased with herself that even here we are talking about their product.

Ads about chocolate are rarely as tasteless.

Well, if it isn't some publicity stunt between Cadbury & Naomi Campbell ( & who knows?) I think it is racist.
I can't see any connection between the product & Campbell apart from colour.
What other connection can be made?
And I don't see her as a "victim", I think the advertisement as silly.

They are both Divas. That's the whole idea behind this stunt.

The chocolate bar is a diva?
Yeah, I know she's rumoured to be one.

Are these images part of the advertising campaign, too?
(Hard to tell from the site I copied these from.)

Here's the article chai referred to in her opening post:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/naomi-campbell-in-race-row-over-cadbury-chocolate-2290405.html

hmmmm.

I just noticed, the name Campbell doesn't appear in the ad.

The name Naomi means, depending on where you look "pleasant, delightful, sweet"

There are a number of other Naomi's running around, who have celebrity.

Naomi(s) Judd (another diva), Watts (quite fair skinned)

To be honest, the last name I think of when I hear Naomi, is Judd, not Campbell.

Does racist now include any and all actual or even implied references to skin color?

And if it does, does it include any and all actual or even implied references to the skin color of people referred to as "white?"

My understanding and use of the word is that it requires some sentiment of disdain, mockery, or hatred. In other words, it requires bad intent or an absence of a reasonable level of sensitivity.

Clearly Cadbury had no bad intentions with this advertisement. It is not particularly disdainful or even mocking to be compared to a high end candy bar set in a pile of diamonds.

Should Cadbury have been aware of the likelihood that a black person would be compared to a chocolate candy bar; within the context of this ad?

I think not.

It's not as if chocolate has a long history of association with racist expression. A photo of a black man enjoying a candy bar doesn't carry the same load of potential offense that one of a black man enjoying a slice of watermelon does. It's unfortunate that the latter does, because why should there be any negative association between black and the enjoyment of a particular fruit? The reason is the association has long been used in disdainful, mocking and hateful expressions about blacks.

Is it racist to associate black people with ebony furniture, or dominoes, or black panthers?

Is it racist to associate white people with milk or bread, or snow?

This is probably an overlong response to the original question, and the general consensus happily seems to be that the ad is not racist, but one responder concluded that it was, and I suspect that she and Ms Campbell will not be the only two people in the world who do.

It's the use of the term that is of interest to me, as it has become a very powerful epithet that no one wants hurled at them and which so many people use indiscriminately.

If simply making a connection to a person's skin color is racist then the word should lose most of its power as an epithet, but it certainly has not.

Some folks will see bad intent where there is clearly none, and I think that most of us can agree when this has happened.

The dicey part is the question of what constitutes reasonable sensitivity.

If that is to be defined by the person taking offense alone, then there is no definition and anything and everything can be racist.

Part of the problem is that there is very often a clear incentive to use the term, whether or not it is accurate, and as society has become less racist, usage of the term has not decreased, it's increased.

Several prominent African-Americans have used the word as an adjective throughout the years. Cornell West and Chris Rock both have.

Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans at the time Katrina hit, gave a famous speech (now known as The Chocolate City speech) and while he got some amount of flack for it, I don't think he was accused of racism.

What matters, though, is Naomi finds it offensive and somewhat harmful to others and she's perfectly entitled to both her feelings and her opinion since I think they clearly did have her in mind when they developed the ad.