arby's and racism
in this day and age i am amazed at the lack of respect there is for racial groups - how the stereo-types are played to on the tv and in advertising in general - for me, the latest is the new arby's tv ad [created by merkley and partners, which is owned by the "omnicom group" ] - the one where monkey's preform a traditional irish step dance to traditional irish music.
you see, this is hard for me because over the past the irish had been viewed as being closer to monkey's then to humans; they were called a "simian race" or a "simian people" - through out recent history cartoonists would portray the irish as having "monkey features" - at one time they were thought to be "hairless monkey's" - not too long ago in our history there were signs on business saying "help wanted, irish need not apply." while the irish, as a group, have made some fantastic strides in overcoming such ignorance, i am amazed that an ad agency would think such a display of racism would be funny. a tv commercial where monkey's step dance to irish music, seems a bit over the top - would they have thought about turning the station to a "traditional mexican" music station and have the monkey's dance a traditional mexican dance? how about with doing the same thing with hip-hop? i am not sure that would have gone beyond even a conversation; but to open old wounds and do something as insulting as showing "monkey's acting irish" seems all right in their eyes.
what i find interesting about this, is that when i contacted arby's about it - they were sorry, but they could not see what i was talking about. in fact, everyone said they never heard anything like this before and no one ever heard of "irish need not apply." for some, the response was one of "surprise" that any irish person would have contacted them and thought it was insulting - the assumption was that the irish are a "humorous group" and "good natured" so they were confused that i would even take the time to call.
well, you eat where you desire - as for me and my irish-self - i think arby's is not even on my list.
