Cadbury's Apology to Naomi Campbell Follows a History of Racist Advertising
If you were wondering why Cadbury was so quick to apologize to Naomi Campbell for an ad for its Bliss chocolate bar that that said, "Move over Naomi, there's a new diva in town," look no further than the company's odd history of racial advertising. Campbell said of the Bliss ad, "It's upsetting to be described as chocolate, not just for me but for all black women and black people."
There's an argument to be made that the joke in this ad is about Campbell's star power, not the use of the word chocolate as an insult ... but that notion withers on the vine when you see some of the rest of Cadbury's recent advertising, which has had some odd things to say about black people.
In 2007, the company was forced to withdraw this ad from U.K. television after it drew hundreds of complaints. The commercial features a poet with a stereotypical Jamaican accent espousing Trident gum. It's terrible:
Cadbury was again accused of racism for a 2009 commercial celebrating its fair trade cocoa deal with Ghana. The ad features an African village erupting in excitement at the arrival of a giant wooden head. The villagers were portrayed as "buffooning simpletons," according to critics:
The odd thing is that Cadbury has been owned by U.S.-based Kraft (KFT) since 2010, and American companies are usually rather more sensitive to racial overtones in ads than their European counterparts. So it's surprising that the Naomi ad even made it out of the gate.
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