Marketing Campaigns and Humor

Everybody loves a good funny ad. We enjoy the creativity and originality that comes with a well executed humorous one. Unfortunately, however, sometimes these sought after humorous ads can go too far. They can use stereotypes of race, religion, and gender past the point of funny venturing into offensive.

I included some print and video advertisements that have received backlash from audiences around the world.


In this ad Ashton Kutcher plays an Indian man in a Pop Chips commercial. Many people thought his "brown face" and stereotypical Indian portrayal was extremely offensive. It was especially noted that the commercial had nothing to do with Pop Chips in the first place which made the problem even worse with some audience members.

Women in advertising still has a long way to go. They are still being used as sexual props in advertisements that don't call for a sexual prop at all. Even in this ad a woman is portrayed as a prop for a man.  

This was a video advertisement for Mountain Dew created by Tyler The Creator an African American entertainer. It was about a crazy goat who beat up a young white woman. This is a screen shot of the lineup shown to the white woman. Many people were very offended by the whole commercial but especially this shot. The entire lineup is comprised of young African American men. 

So when is humor in marketing and advertising a smart strategic move and when is it not? In my opinion, it is the marketers job to have the sensitivity of race, religion, and gender when creating or allowing ads to run. These kind of advertisements show that there is still a lack of sensitivity with many issues that our society has been facing for far too long now.