Arab-American groups call Coke Super Bowl ad ‘racist’
Arab-American groups have sharply criticized a Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad depicting an Arab walking through the desert with a camel, and one group said it would ask the beverage giant to change it before CBS airs the game on Sunday before an expected audience of more than 100 million U.S. viewers.
“Why is it that Arabs are always shown as either oil-rich sheiks, terrorists, or belly dancers?” said Warren David, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC.
Coca-Cola released an online teaser of the commercial last week, showing the Arab walking through a desert. He soon sees cowboys, Las Vegas showgirls and a motley crew fashioned after the marauders of the apocalyptic “Mad Max” film race by him to reach a gigantic bottle of Coke.
In its ad, Coke asks viewers to vote online on which characters should win the race. The online site does not allow a vote for the Arab character.
The company has a large market share in the Middle East and North Africa, he noted, and many convenience stores and other retail outlets in the United States that offer Coke are owned by Arab-Americans.
This commercial is interesting (not in a “good” way).
If you look at the content and consider that you can vote for the winner but not for the Arab, that seems skewed to me. The commercial doesn’t make any sense in the first place, considering you have some type of future, post-apocalyptic guys mixed in with cowboys from the past and showgirls seemingly from the present. In the scenario, the Arab seems to not only be out of place in time, but in the commercial as well.
I can see that the stereotype here is annoying to some Arabs, and I can accept that. However, I laugh at the unintended irony of the commercial, as all the others represented here–past, present, and future–are seemingly western and racing toward something with great fervor that is nothing more than liquid garbage. In that regard, I find it humorous and, good for the Arab that his is not mixed up in this hype.
Stupid American commercialism.
The four groups in the commercial are clearly based on specific movies set in deserts: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, MAD MAX 2, and some western I haven’t yet been able to identify. (Among the cowboys is a woman in a white skirt and a black top, and she’s holding a raised white parasol.) Anybody know which specific western movie those characters represent?