Friday, September 13, 2013

Russian government fines advertiser for the wrong reasons


The ad above says (according to Google Translate) "Keep smiling, even in the most difficult situations!"

Did someone complain that this ancient, dumb, joke is rather racist? No.

Business Insider reports that Russia's Federal Anti-monopoly Service fined the advertiser 100,000 rubles (~$3077 USD) After conducting a poll finding that 38% of Russian citizens were offended by the ad.

From sotav.ru (again, Google Translated):
"The appearance of a typical Russian family of the child with the same skin color as that of the parents, is the accepted norm, and the appearance of light-skinned African-American parents of the child points to marital infidelity on the part of the mother." [This is a quote from the FAS] 
According to the regulator, adultery is abusive behavior, disrupts family foundations in terms of morality and ethics. Advertise casts doubt on family values, is ironic, disregard for the norms of public morality. "The scope of medical services is quite serious, and a similar irony in the advertisement is inappropriate."
That's right, Russian regulators. It's not offensive because it recycles a cliché based on white men's sexual insecurities with perceived black sexual prowess. It's offensive to "family values"...

2 comments:

  1. Whoa... I have nothing else to say. I wsih I was surprised, but this is Russia...

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  2. "it recycles a cliché based on white men's sexual insecurities with perceived black sexual prowess"

    Did you pull that out of your ass? This is not about any sexual insecurities of white men or perceived black sexual prowess. They could have used an Asian baby, but the difference would not have been that striking. Have you been to Russia? Having a white mommy with a black baby is not the norm there, and the black baby in this case is only to illustrate a case of infidelity, as the ad suggests, which is the actual issue at hand (not so much the fact that the baby is a different skin color). I can see how this may offend a huge segment of the Russian population which indeed places a huge emphasis on family values. I will not be passing judgements on how those people live or think. It's Russia.

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