I admit it, the title of this post is somewhat intemperate. But I can't take it anymore.
Nothing is safe from the insanity that is the race card in modern America. Not even the chocolate frosting on our cupcakes, or the creative mind.
Duncan Hines had a good idea. Come out with a line of cupcake "glazings" and hire a well known animation studio to create a catchy set of commercials:
To inspire creativity during the height of baking season, Duncan Hines partnered with Filmaka to tap four professional filmmakers for their one-of-a-kind vision. Each director offers their own interpretation of the passion, creativity and fun behind baking that the Amazing Glazes toppings inspire. The first video in the series, called "Hip Hop Cupcakes," launched today at YouTube.com/AmazingGlazes.And the commercial they created was great, featuring singing chocolate frosting on top of cupcakes:
Created by Josh Binder, a Chicago-based director, "Hip Hop Cupcakes" portrays how Amazing Glazes make any delicious dessert "sing." Binder's inspiration for the video was bringing to life the joy of baking. "I wanted to create an entertaining and engaging way to show bakers that this glaze makes everything you top taste better and more exciting."
It definitely made me hungry, laugh a little, and even contemplate buying the product.
The problem?
The commercial supposedly was "racist" because the singing was done by chocolate frosting which supposedly resembled singers in blackface:
"The racial component can’t be overlooked. It doesn’t matter that they’re cupcakes; the fact that they start rapping isn’t too far a stretch from making them in blackface. If the icing was in different flavors, or the lips weren’t so big and pink maybe we could give the ad a pass, but as it stands it’s a pretty poorly constructed and potentially racist ad I’m the last person to be overly sensitive to media images, but the frothy mix of chocolate skinned cupcakes, bad Hip-Hop and a long media history of depicting stereotypical black people to sell food give me reason to question the intent if not the effect of this."These cupcake commercial makers obviously were not sufficiently sensitive to the hyperactive imaginations of the race card players:
"Those “Hip Hop Cupcakes” just make me sad…Clearly there are no minorities in the board room where they work on advertising at Duncan Hines.Not recognizing the irony, the "Annals of Absurdity Blog" at The Village Voice chimed in:
The director of the ad is Josh Binder who as you might of guessed, is white.
http://www.filmaka.com/profile.php?user_id=32719
Surely somewhere in his film school education he was taught about the history of minstrelsy and blackface in America?"
"Taking a lesson from the "Drunken Negro Face" school of publicity, the folks at Duncan Hines have made cupcakes more offensive than Magnolia Bakery could ever hope to, thanks to their Amazing Glazes campaign."Inquiring minds are asking:
"Did no one honestly see this cupcake controversy coming at Duncan Hines?"Well, why should they have seen this coming when there is nothing wrong with the commercials? It's just chocolate frosting, you idiots.
Predictably, Duncan Hines pulled the ad because of the controversy, with this explanation:
"Our intent was to entertain fans with a fun video about chocolate glazed cupcakes, and nothing more."In this day and age, the California Raisins never would have stood a chance:
--------------------------------------------
Related Posts:
HP Facial Recognition Software Is Racist and so is your Nikon camera
Racists Get To Third Base
What Don't You Understand About "No Asians"?
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
Visit the Legal Insurrection Shop on CafePress!
A new low. Incredible!! If Christians were so sensitive, they would be outrageously OUTRAGED by the obvious "anti-Christian bias" because the name "Amazing Glazes" is a bit too close to "Amazing Grace." But....not being over-sensitive cry-baby whiners, Christians won't probably even notice. The ones who do would smile! Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteGet over yourselves, people! They are CUPCAKES and the glaze is CHOCOLATE! The a capella rhythms are clever and entertaining. How else do you animate a cupcake singing without LIPS?! What color would have been preferable besides pink, huh? Ruby red, like that used often by blackface minstrel shows? or white, also often used by blackface minstrel shows?
Grow up. Get over your biased hatred of all who you claim to be racist. You project your intolerant racism on the rest of the world. Stop it!
This is too funny, proving Prof. Jacobsen's posts can be as darling as they are insightful.
ReplyDeleteHaving once stood in an around-the-block line to Magnolia Bakery and been hurried through the store by a lovely but strict and don't mess with me (minority) large doorwoman, I will never think of cupcakes as simple risen cake flour with sugary glazes, again.
I wish they'd used vanilla glaze for the cupcakes, then I too could get my 15 minutes of fame.
ReplyDeleteI'd drive over to join the protest, but me, step on "blacktop" oh, how could I?
Yikes and here I am in the midst of making dozens of Oreo truffle balls for a cookie exchange tomorrow. I completely overlooked the racial component involved in crushing the black and white confections, blending the crumbs with cream cheese and rolling them into balls. That I chose to dip the balls in melted white chocolate instead of milk or dark chocolate says something about my obviously broken racial sensitivity meter.
ReplyDeleteI will say in my defense, no one can resist these delicious balls.
I've heard people self-describe as caramel or cinnamon brown in terms of race, which sounded colorfully sweet at the time. Should they, instead, have been denounced?
ReplyDeleteAnd are women to no longer refer to their cupcakes*, or only to their specified flavored ones? It's difficult keeping up with the race v. gender sensibilities.
(*no offense to the gays)
"It's just chocolate frosting, you idiots."
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to see Duncan Hines come out and say this. I would have loved Hallmark to come out and say "It says black HOLES you morons." These people (queue Tropical Thunder "What do YOU mean you people?" moment) won't stop until one of two things happen-they finally force everyone to conform to their increasingly whacked out politically correct views, or they get called out repeatedly for what they are.
What we need is for a major corporation caught in a "racial" controversy to say: "It's just . The only way you could possibly think otherwise is if you're mentally deficient, have an ulterior motive, or both."
I'm not holding my breath.
That sound you just heard was my head exploding. Racist? Really? I don't even know where to go with this.
ReplyDeleteCan I just say? I hate hip-hop. Not that I don't enjoy certain "old school" rap songs; "Welcome to the Terrordome" is still one of my favorite songs. But using hip-hop in commercials has become a stereotype in and of itself. It's way too much of a cliche to even be effective on me, anymore.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember "Muppets Take Manhattan"? A trio of advertisers (frogs) ask Kermit what he thinks of their various slogans for soap. Kermit ("a frog with horse sense") suggests a much simpler line: It can get you clean. Just say what the product does, basically, which was so "crazy" and "nuts" that it actually succeeded in selling more soap. In other words, ditch the hip-hop.
Just wanted to get that off my chest.
Michelle Obama is gonna be po'd that these stupid capitalistic sugar companies haven't gotten her memos about how fat we are and it's their fault. No more advertising for Duncan Hines now. The 2000 page bill is being written as we speak.
ReplyDeleteBig pink lips? I'm no expert on minstrel iconography, but didn't blackface makeup jobs have big white lips?
ReplyDelete