Quiz Time
May 29th, 2008
OK, some of you will have seen the story, but for those of you who haven’t, I’ve got a quiz for you. Take a good long look at this photo above. After pressure from “critics”, this advertisement apparently got pulled from the “Dunkin’ Donuts” website. So the question is: why?
- The woman in the photo has been found to be in a lesbian relationship and it was thought that this wasn’t in keeping with Dunkin’ Donuts “family-values” image.
- The term “dunkin’ perks” was taken to be an inappropriate euphemism.
- People thought that the “arab-like” motif on the lady’s scarf could be seen as supporting terrorism.
- This was the first time inside America that an “outside photo” has been shown from somewhere other than Dunkin’ Donut’s “spiritual home” - Canton, Massacusetts - the location of the Dunkin’ Donuts headquarters.
It’s ridiculous, right? None of those could possibly be true. But scroll down a little, and I’ll let you in on the secret…
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From The Age:
The Dunkin’ Donuts chain has pulled an online advertisement featuring celebrity chef Rachael Ray after critics argued that that a scarf she wore in the ad offers symbolic support for terrorism.
…Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf appeared to be traditional garb worn by Arab men. The ad’s critics say such scarves have come to symbolise Muslim extremism and terrorism. (Source: The Age - “Dunkin’ Donuts pulls terrorism scarf ad“)
There’s just too much comedy in this to even know where to start. But it points to a much scarier and frightening reality - the incredible amount of xenophobia embedded in the culture of the country we get the majority of our cultural understanding from. There’s two enormous “logic-jumps” here: the jump from looking at that scarf, to thinking of an arab head covering. I certainly didn’t make that jump, indeed the first reading of the article had me wondering if this was even the picture they were talking about. And the second (and far worse) “logic-jump” - the assumption that anything to do with “traditional garb worn by Arab men” would have anything to do with supporting terrorism.
It’s a sad, sad world.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
oh dear
oh oh dear me
how about g) it’s coming into summer in the US and why would someone wear a scarf during summer?
buy dunkin, it’s what terrorists eat before a big day of bombing…
buy dunkin or we’ll bomb ye ass
buy dunkin and we might tell you where osama is
buy…
May 30th, 2008 at 10:01 am
OMG! What a sad sad world we live in if that is the reason for removing the ad campaign.
I was thinking surely it because Americans are already fat enough and they shouldn’t be encourage to visit a donut shop, but a scarf supporting terrorism I would like to say I didn’t see that coming… but sadly I did.
June 17th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I thought it would have been:
e) Fake smile and bad bad styled eyebrows…
June 19th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Saw this in USA Today and was dumbfounded. Liked your editorial on it…found you via Nicholas Fiedler’s site.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Yeah, I agree it’s a sad sad world really!
Well I guess, Arabs or muslims have already this “branding” wearing scarfs and other stuffs. There’s a little bit of discrimination actually. I don’t think that some people who are wearing scarfs supports terrorism, it’s just a fashion thing!
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
I thought it was going to be because the building looked too much like penis.
I think this scarf just shows she is well traveled. These scarves are huge in the backpacking, world traveling crowd. Oh…that all makes sense. Backpackers are terrorists.