Cadbury Fairtrade ad accused of racial sterotyping
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A Cadbury advertisement to promote its recent move to Fairtrade chocolate has been accused of presenting racial sterotypes.
The Advertising Standards Authority has received 15 complaints about the spot, which is set in Ghana and features farmers that grow the cocoa pods Cadbury uses in its chocolate. The watchdog has not yet decided whether to investigate the complaints.
Complainants accused the spot of being demeaning and of perpetuating stereotypes of African people.
A spokeswoman for Cadbury says it rejects the allegations, adding the campaign has been “widely welcomed” by Ghanaians including community leaders both in Ghana and in the UK.
“Our heritage, reputation and strong values are incredibly important to us. We have gone to considerable lengths to ensure that this is a joyous and uplifting portrayal of Ghanaian culture and something which Ghanaians can feel proud of, she adds.
The ad features a giant tribal head raining cocoa pods as it passes through a Ghanaian village.
The soundtrack to the spot, Zingolo, was performed by Ghanaian music star Tinny and released as a single with all profits going to CARE International charities to fund education in the region.
The complaints come two years after Cadbury was forced to pull an ad for its Trident gum brand after the ASA concluded the campaign showed “hamful” racial sterotypes.
Readers' comments (5)
Anonymous | Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:06 pm
what??? this totally misses the point. Tinny is amazing and this is brilliant. Big up to cadbury and fairtrade for bringing ghana to the world
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Anonymous | Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:19 pm
Can we please lay this to rest? There is nothing wrong with this beautiful advert as well as the previous one (The Gorilla beating a drum). I am an African woman and didn't find it offensive.
we don't have to use a naked man or woman,use unreasonable image or language in our advert to get a product across.
How sensitive are people this days. What do we classify as sterotypes this days.
As long as Cardbury this not portray what is not true about Ghana or African in general, i don't see anything wrong with this advert.
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Anonymous | Fri, 16 Oct 2009 3:24 pm
Great advert, my colleague who is Jamacan agrees, great fun and shows a real diversity in an otherwise fairly unknown area.
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the-obe | Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:41 am
This is political correctness gone very very mad..I am a ghanian living in the Uk, and i very much welcome this advert, its organic AND shows Ghana in the best possible light!!!
Big up Cadbury
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David | Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:54 pm
"we love Ghana and we love farmers, which is why we love farmers from Ghana. In fact we've been working with them for 100 years" - from the back of a 400g dairy milk.
i don't know about you guys but I react to this. Light hearted dismissal of 100 years of oppressing and taking advantage of the poor farmers of ghana. wtf. we weren't born yesterday cadbury's.
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