Chance the Rapper Attacks Heineken's Racist Ad ?

          In a recent March ad of 2018, Heineken launched an advertisement in the U.S.A, Australia, and New Zealand for their new Heineken Light beer, which has only 99 calories. This resulted in a large outbreak to occur amongst its viewers, including musician- Chance the Rapper. In the ad, an observant bartender uses a pair of binoculars to look at a distant female who is disappointingly staring at her glass of white wine. He then proceeds to open a Heineken Light beer bottle and slides it down the bar. On the way to the woman and her wine glass, the bottle passes two black women and a black man. Heineken's tagline "Sometimes, Lighter is Better" flashes on the screen as the woman with lighter skin picks up the bottle and examines it. The message that viewers took away from watching this ad was that Heineken promoted and favored lighter complexions over dark complexions. It was deemed a racist advertisement, and in response to the controversy, Heineken ended up dropping the commercial.

          In an article by BBC News, a spokesperson for Heineken U.S.A said, "Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows there's more that unites us than divides us. We missed the mark, are taking the feedback to heart and will use this to influence future campaigns." A handful of people were angry with the company for creating such an advertisement that focused more on the color of people's complexions rather than the Light beer they were supposed to be promoting. Chance the Rapper decided to reach out on Twitter and express his criticism through a series of tweets.

He suggested that "some companies are purposely putting out noticeably racist ads so they can get more views".  A number of his fans also agreed on this ideology. Because Chance the Rapper had slammed the ad on social media, it caused a lot more people to be aware of how racist the ad really was. This thus resulted in Heineken apologizing for its mistake. The company tried creating an emotional appeal that Light beer is something, everyone- male or female- can enjoy, but instead displayed a controversial message about colored individuals.
          Heineken is not the only popular company to have created racist adverts. Another ad that I remember seeing was the Dove ad from October 2017. In the ad, it showed a black woman taking off her shirt and after, transforming into a white woman. Many people were upset at Dove for creating a message that depicted black women as being dirty and white women as being clean. Many thought that this was hypocritical of Dove because their message was "the beauty of diversity"; as part of the beauty industry, it was disappointing to see that Dove created an ad that basically shamed certain people's body images. It seemed as if the ad had nothing to do with the body soap they were trying to promote.
         The continuation of companies' racially insensitive adverts gives off a negative image and impression to viewers who actually utilize these products.