Two Stephen Fry-fronted TV ads for Twinings Tea have been cleared by the Advertising Standards Authority after a complaint that they presented a negative stereotype of a black man as sexually promiscuous.
The watchdog accepted the arguments by ad agency Lowe that "race was not central or relevant to the ads", which were based on Fry's character being "older and less cool" than the young black American man he featured alongside.
Twinings ad: features Fry talking to three women about tea In the first ad, Fry was shown alongside the man, called Tyrone, and speaking to three white women sitting at the counter of a teashop about tea. When he comments that they are "well informed" one of the women says: "Tyrone's been filling us in."
The women are then seen laughing and looking at Tyrone who drops a tin of tea to the floor with Fry commenting: "Oh has he? Has he indeed?"
A second ad showed the same teashop and featured Tyrone writing on a blackboard the words "Earl Grey puts the Zing in your ding-a-ling".In the course of a discussion about the phrase and the quality of the tea, Fry urges Tyrone to "feel" the taste. Tyrone responds "In your ding-a-ling?", with Fry retorting: "No Tyrone. Not in your ding-a-ling."
According to one viewer, both ads were offensive and harmful because she believed they played a negative racial stereotype of a black man as sexually promiscuous and, in the case of the first ad, also existing to provide sexual services for white women.
According to Lowe's submission to the ASA, this was the first complaint that the Twinings campaign was racist.
Lowe said that the character of Tyrone was picked as an opposite to Fry and was "intended to be a way of contemporising the brand and making tea cool".
In its ruling, which cleared the advertisement of breaching its standards code, the ASA said: "Although we acknowledged the innuendo was mildly sexual, we did not consider that it was reliant on the young man's ethnic origins or a racial stereotype.
"We noted the character of Tyrone was shown as an attractive, confident young man and ... clearly enjoying the attentions of, and flirting with, the women.
"We did not consider that his or the women's enjoyment of the situation implied that his character was there simply to provide sexual services for white women, but rather that he was a young man enjoying the confidence-boosting attentions of a group of women."
We considered that Tyrone was shown as a positive character and, because neither ad was reliant on race for its humour, viewers generally were unlikely to believe the ads implied that black men were promiscuous or there to provide sexual services for white women.
"We concluded that the ads were not harmful or likely to cause offence to most viewers."
Article #2
Guinness faces lawsuit for KKK advert
A former pub landlord is suing Guinness because he claims the company's advertising led to a boycott of his pub.Paul Doherty said students organised the boycott after a poster featuring a image of the Ku Klux Klan was put up in his pub.
Mr Doherty is claiming the poster, part of Guinness's "Not everything in black and white makes sense" campaign, was put up by a Guinness sales representative while he was away on holiday.
The poster was a reference to a cinema advertisement that showed a Klan rally with the comment: "44% of Ku Klux Klan members were delivered by a black midwife".But Mr Doherty said that because the poster in his pub showed the Klan image but did not display the statistic, it could be interpreted as racist.
He said several customers had asked him what the poster was doing there."I got asked a lot of questions like 'Does Guinness support the Ku Klux Klan?'" he said. "The poster was nothing to do with me personally but there is a minority of people who think if something like that is displayed in your premises then you are responsible for it."Guinness is contesting the action and the case is expected to last five days.
Article #3
Court lambasts 'racist' Land Rover advert
Land Rover has been forced into an humiliating climbdown after an advertising campaign it ran in South Africa was judged racist and "a mockery of African culture".
A South African court has ordered the company to withdraw the offending advert, which showed a semi-nude African woman whose elongated breasts are blown sideways in the tailwind of a Land Rover.
But in an unprecedented move against an advertiser, the court also ruled the company must publish a statement that amounts to a humiliating public apology in all the publications the three-page advert originally appeared in.
The replacement adverts will contain a ruling by the country's Advertising Standards Authority, which judged the advert "irresponsible, exploitative and constitutes racial stereotyping and violates human dignity".
It added: "The insensitive portrayal of the woman makes a mockery of African culture."
ASA executive director Deline Beukes said this was the first time such a move had been ordered and that the sanction reflected the severity of the case.
Ms Beukes said the new sanction was a reaction to accusations the ASA was a toothless organisation.
She said it would discourage so-called "hit and run" advertising, where the desired shock effect is achieved before the ASA has the time to ban an advertisement.
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