MASTICATION FOR THA NATION!

[R.I.P Kiyan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVl5zWTuo_w

Chewing Gum Ad Campaign Branded \"Racist\"
Thursday, 1st March 2007, 08:26
Category: TV, Film and Theatre
A high profile chewing gum ad campaign has been branded \"racist\" by dozens of furious TV viewers.

The ads for Trident gum, including one featuring a minstrel comedian, has sparked almost 100 complaints to advertising watchdogs.

The Advertising Standards Authority confirmed it has already received 91 complaints in just two weeks for the Trident TV ad, with more set to come in as discrimination campaigners urge viewers to write in and get the ads banned.

The ASA said it has launched an investigation into the commercials - which end with the slogan \'Mastication for the nation\' - and could ban the ads if they are found to be in breach of TV advertising codes.

One ad features a black comedian with an exaggerated Jamaican accent. After complaining that standard chewing gum is just too chewy, comparing it to \"10 years\' hard labour\", someone in the audience offers him Trident soft gum.

He bursts out of the comedy theatre, howling down the street and shouting \"Me taste buds is flooding\" on a mission to \"tell the world\" about the gum.

Britain\'s biggest black newspaper, New Nation, was swift to condemn the ad and actor this week.

An article by Steve Pope blasted the video, stating: \"It’s terrible enough when ‘others’ do dreadful impressions of a Jamaican or other Caribbean accents, but when it comes from the mouth of a black person it’s even more embarrassing.

\"I don’t know about the ad’s slogan ‘mastication for the nation’, I can think of another similar sounding word that just about sums it up.

\"Hopefully the product will be a huge flop as I think that many people will find the advert a complete turn off.\"

Viewer Steve Birch, 38, said his jaw dropped when he first saw the Trident advert.

Mr Birch, of Clapham, south London, said: \"I was amazed when I first saw this advert on mainstream TV in this day and age. They might as well have had the Black And White Minstrels or a golliwog advertising the product, such was the level of racial stereotyping involved.

\"If Jade Goody was guilty of racist behaviour on Celebrity Big Brother, then the people behind this advertising campaign are guilty of racial stereotyping 10 times over.\"

ASA spokeswoman Donna Mitchell said the watchdog had received a \"significant number\" of complaints.

She said: \"We have received 91 complaints the ad is racist, which is quite significant. A lot of the ads we usually deal with have just a single complaint.\"

Ms Mitchell said the Trident ads would be investigated under TV codes 6.1 and 6.6 which deal with humour in advertising, offence and stereotypes. If found to breach the codes, the ad would be banned.

Angry viewers have been inundating internet chatrooms to criticise the ads and encourage others to make a complaint to the ASA.

New Nation highlights one on Blackchat.co.uk, which says: \"The first time I saw it, all I hear is some maddy sounding ja-faken accent... I look back and double take at the baffoon {sic} “starring” in it. I felt so ashamed as I was with my Iranian and Turkish friends.\"

Users of Ligali - which claims to be \"the forum for African people\" - also raged against the alleged racism.

One user said: \"I can\'t believe that in 2007 England still thinks that this kind of thing is acceptable. I know I\'m going to complain because its just offensive.\"

Another added: \"I cannot believe that in 2007 Black people still think it\'s cool to play these monkey-arse sambo parts.

\"And why is it that they never use a proper Jamaican to play these parts? Look how many Jamaicans there are in this Country.\"

A third added: \"We should be making a stink about these images. They are taking the living piss out of us on a global scale, and we can do something about it to stop it. Unify, and lobby against it.\"