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Title: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: Shockeye on April 13, 2005, 03:17:22 PM Quote from: The Local Ice cream giant slammed for "racist" ads (http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=1277&date=20050413&PHPSESSID=8576af5e0eb74fd59a99920308014b9d) Nogger Black ice cream: logo has nothing to do with hip hop culture says maker GB (http://www.thelocal.se/images/articleRelated/noggerbig.jpg) Sweden's biggest ice cream maker, GB Glace, has been accused of racism after launching an advertising campaign for its new ice cream, Nogger Black. The company has been strongly criticised by the Centre Against Racism for associating the ice cream with black youth culture, including using graffiti-style writing in the ad. "We're not critical of the colour of the ice cream or the name 'Black' but the whole concept of the advertisement," said Amina Ek of the Centre Against Racism to Svenska Dagbladet. The ad itself features a heart drawn in white on a black background with the words 'Nogger + liquorice = true' inside. The chairman of the Centre Against Racism, Stig Wallin, told Aftonbladet that he reacted immediately when he first saw the ad on Tuesday afternoon. "I read it as 'Nigger + liquorice = true'," he said. "It's impossible not to see this as an allusion to racism." Amina Ek said that this kind of ad "reinforced the racist structure of society" and that the Centre Against Racism was considering reporting GB to the Discrimination Ombudsman if the company did not withdraw the campaign. But GB, which is owned by Unilever, said it didn't see what all the fuss was about. Petronella Warg, the company's information officer, told The Local that the original Nogger ice cream had been around since 1979 and derived its name from the nougat filling. "That was brown - and nobody complained about that," she said. The new variety includes liquorice and is black, so "Nogger Black" apparently seemed like a natural name. "I think what they say about the ads alluding to black hip hop culture is far-fetched," said Warg. "Drawing a heart in the school playground with two names in, that's my culture." According to Petronella Warg, the company had "a couple of complaints" from consumers when the ice cream was first launched a couple of weeks ago but "it was no big deal". Nevertheless, she added that GB would listen to what the Centre Against Racism had to say. "If anyone is really offended then we will take that into account Aftonbladet's readers appeared to support GB's view on the matter. Of almost 50,000 people who answered the question "Do you think the ice cream advertisement is racist?" 94% said no. Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: schild on April 13, 2005, 03:22:51 PM If they made shirts that said: "This nigga needs some nogga." Well, I'd have to buy one.
Now all we have to do is wait for Bruce to come in and tell us he's 1/1,572th black. Anyone wanna give me an over/under on this thread? Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: SirBruce on April 13, 2005, 04:00:22 PM Over 2.
Bruce Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: Strazos on April 13, 2005, 10:00:46 PM Blood work says I'm ~5% Sub-Saharan African...does that count for anything?
I'll laugh if it gets me a graduate scholarship from the NAACP. Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: Paelos on April 14, 2005, 07:34:38 AM Ice cream is keeping the black man down people! We must do something!
Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: HaemishM on April 14, 2005, 09:01:21 AM You know, if that logo didn't look like Graffitti artwork, I'd find it hard to draw the correlation.
Either way, I think it's fucking stupid, but hey, overly sensitive people keep trying to one-up PETA on the "Shit you shouldn't get your panties in a bunch over" category. Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: voodoolily on April 14, 2005, 01:41:53 PM Does anyone else wonder why the ad is in English? It's a Swedish product, right?
Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: Roac on April 14, 2005, 01:43:56 PM Does anyone else wonder why the ad is in English? It's a Swedish product, right? It might be because the paper describes itself as "Sweden's news in English". Edit, because that probably isn't enough hint: That there is enough support in Sweden for an English newspaper, and that there is references in the article itself to English and Swedish groups in Sweden, would suggest that there is a reasonably strong English-speaking community that enjoys their products to be in English, much like Hispanic areas in the US get products in their language. Being such, if there were at all an English-version of the advertisment, the English-speaking Swedish paper would include that one, and not the Swedish version. Title: Re: I'm sure they thought it was a great idea at the time. Post by: voodoolily on April 14, 2005, 01:53:16 PM Yeah, but I guess what I was getting at is the translation of durogatory slang.
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