The mere fact that this ad triggered such a debate, means that there is some problemt with it. I guess its becuase it falls exactly on the thin line between "offensive" and "just an ad - why take it seriously".

I guess if it was a photographed man (not drawn), the answer was more obvious.

@ serafim_azriel - it really does help. i don't mind if people after viewing all the information choose to agree or disagree about what might be considered offensive. but i do think people should be educated about what others are objecting to, so they can make an informed decision rather than a mistaken or incorrect judgment about what is being viewed as so problematic. i'm so glad that you posted that example because i think it does help with understanding about what is being viewed as so controversial.

@ jackgopher - i think you're right about that, and people aren't sure how to react to this image. i think because of that, maybe the advertisers should have considered using more caution and not produced an image that may be viewed as so offensive. you have to wonder why the man is this image couldn't have been dressed like he was going on a safari rather than such a stereotypical drawing. but asides from that, just producing something so controversial would only hurt them and their product. it may grab people's attention, but if those ads weren't annoying enough, at the very least it shows very bad taste (especially in what can be viewed as comedic) it really shows that advertisers should be much more careful about what they choose to produce in order to prevent possible reactions like this.

Nice example. It's horribly racist. I can't believe there's actually a site dedicated to shit like this.

I think the main problem is that although most people know about racism and (obviously) the civil war, they have not seen any actual racist imagery and therefore don't see the undertones that Jaded is mentioning. Most obvious racist cartoons can only be found if you look for them.
Therefore, most people won't see what Jaded is trying to say because they have nothing to compare it to.
Out of context, the cartoon is not offensive, but knowing the history of similar images, you can see that there are racial undertones, whether they are meant as offensive or simply humorous (in an ignorant, way, admittedly).

(Random half-related: I hate all of those spam cartoons, especially the "tickle the fat kid until he pukes" (though that's purely personal, I was overweight and became bulimic) and the obviously sexist ones and all that. I don't think anyone even goes to the links even when they win, so they don't care if what they show is offensive or not.)

@ serafim_azriel - exactly! sorry, but i had to post in complete agreement with everything in the above post. stated very well (both in regards to this specific thread and the annoyance of pop-up ads in general) thank you for that post.

@Andre: You'd be surprised, there are many easily found racist and otherwise discriminatory websites (I looked many of them up for a high school project on discrimination). This one was a White Aryan website and it had galleries labeled "Faggots", "Niggers", "Gooks", "Beaners", etc.


FYI- Many common terms are racist without people knowing it. Jipped or Gypped is based off of Gypsies and how they apparently always steal from everyone.

Grr, don't mention it anymore. Me encabrona carajo puñeta maldita sea. My bad for venting in spanish. But I hate racism. It's just so unnecessary and immature and stupid.

@Andre-I understand what you mean, I think a big problem with racism nowadays is people only really see the KKK as racists and few select individuals, but there is more than that, Neo-Nazis, Skinheads, even many common lay-people are obviously racist.
Some people just chose to ignore them and not deal with them.

@ jaded geisha - did you see serafim_azriel's picture post on pg. 7? i highly recommend placing that in the first post so that people understand the stereotypical subject you're referring to, as well as an example of how this type of image is used in a negative way.