Obama as a monkey TV ad pulled
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A JAPANESE mobile phone firm has halted an advertisement depicting a monkey as a political candidate after bloggers said the commercial was a racial slur against US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
An ad aired by the mobile unit of eAccess Ltd showed the firm’s mascot, a monkey, addressing a political rally in Japanese and surrounded by supporters brandishing placards with the word “Change”.
Some bloggers said the eMobile ad was racist because it seemed to refer to Obama and his campaign slogan advocating change.
Earlier this week Britain’s Telegraph newspaper ran a story saying the ad “apparently portraying Barack Obama as a monkey has provoked a new row about racial depictions of the Democratic candidate”.
Monkeys, while revered in parts of Asia, are viewed in some Western nationas as a racial slur if used to depict African Americans.
eMobile said today that the firm never meant to malign Obama but was withdrawing the ad after the outbreak of criticism in cyberspace.
“We had no bad intentions, but this is a cross-cultural gap issue and we have to accept it,” eMobile CEO Sachio Semmoto said.
“There are some African Americans in Japan, so we decided to take prompt action and shut down the ad.”
Mr Semmoto said the advertisement, which he said was produced by WPP Group Plc’s JWT unit, had meant to underscore his firm’s commitment to change.
“For two years I’ve been saying that Obama has the capacity to change America, the kind of capacity that Japan needs,” said Mr Semmoto, who has a reputation as a maverick and whose company has carved out a niche in Japan with a pricing model that differs from more entrenched competitors.
Monkey deities exist in Hinduism, Buddhism and Shintoism, and monkey figures are common in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan, including the famous 17th century carving of three wise monkeys on the facade of the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko.
In Hinduism, Hanuman is a monkey god revered for courage and power.
There was a major sporting row in January when Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds was allegedly called a monkey by Indian offspinner Harbajan Singh in Sydney following earlier incidents of crowds in India directing monkey taunts at the dreadlocked allrounder.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si-lSLv9b4E
This entry was posted on July 2, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under LOTB, juggalo holocaust, land of the banned with tags African Americans, Andrew Symonds, Barack Obama, democrates, Monkeys, obama, obama is a monkey, obama monkey, polictis, Racist, tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
