Jarlsberg: Fear of a Black Baby

It's an old joke: The white woman with a white husband has a Black baby. It's the punchline of a joke that goes way back in time, and it's awful.



In this case, it's used as a sight gag in a Norwegian ad for Jarlsberg cheese, by TRY/APT, Oslo. As Joe La Pompe points out, the overall ad concept is unoriginal, as it is suspiciously similar to a French paper ad that won a Bronze Lion at Cannes just last year.

The French ad used the comparison of "this is inferior to that" in a comical and fairly harmless way. Now let's look at the same gag in the Norwegian spot:

Jarlsberg is to other cheeses as:

• Football (Soccer) is to Vacuous American Entertainment Shows
• Proper Funeral Attire is to Inappropriate Party Attire
• A Formal Caregiver is to a Male Stripper
• A Nursing Home is to a Mental Hospital

and...

• A White Husband is to an Affair with a Black Man

See the problem? Well, there is more than one, but the black baby gag is the most objectionable.

Enough with the racist jokes, already. This is the 21st Century. Playing on white fears of Black sexuality is old, and it's harmful.

The strangest McDonald's ads you will see today

Two teenage girls mug a terrified Jason/Leatherface hybrid for his burgers.




But they're French girls, and those burgers have stinky cheese on them! Who could resist?

There's another ad in the series, but it's a pretty weak extension of the concept:

Campaign by TBWA Paris. Via Ads of The World

Cottage cheese thighs?

"Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine," who are basically a vegan advocacy group, are hating on cheese again.

These billboards were recently erected outside Albany, New York, in dairy country.

Strangely, this is part of a campaign to have cheese removed from (or reduced in) school lunches.

"PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., has written a letter to members of the Albany city school board, asking the city to cut down on dairy products served in schools to help students reduce the risk of childhood obesity.
...
School lunches in Albany include an abundance of cheesy foods. The city’s high school menu, for example, includes dairy- and fat-loaded offerings such as chicken parmesan and lasagna with three different types of cheese. Cheese pizzas are available daily."

I won't defend the nutritional value of crappy school lunches. But as an ad guy, I find PCRM's ads as useless as ever. Eating too much fat makes you fat? Gee... thanks. Quite the medical breakthrough there. Targeting one food as the enemy, however, oversimplifies the issue.

Tip via Sociological Images

Does Slovakia need a law against cheesy ads?

I can see where the concept came from here. In Europe, cheeses are as unique as the countries that produce them. I just don't see these quirky ads selling a lot of cheese.

Ads by JANDL, Bratislava, Slovakia
Via IBiA

F'd Ad Fridays: Lower your dairy bills by milking your pet

 This (hoax) infomercial by Sebastien Brochot promises French consumers that they can cut their cheese and dairy costs by using this product to milk their pets.


Happening : Une trayeuse pour les animaux domestiques from SebaTV Production on Vimeo.

Note that it comes in dog, cat and "rodent" models. I do love me a well-aged Ratefort cheese...