Comments on: Local Marketing in a Global World and Political Correctness Gone Wild

By: Dean Rodgers

Dean Rodgers — Sun, 22 May 2011 16:36:47 +0000

The upsetting thing is that racism (real racism) in the US seems to be going away on its own. But, John, I think you’re absolutely right — when it is forced or handled in an unnatural or nonsensical way, at some part it does more harm than good. Clearly most of Hollywood is interested in pressing the agenda and that does show up in casting a lot. Thor is a good recent example. If you are talking about gods from a particular culture, time and place, chances are that the gods resemble people of that culture time and place. Another recent example includes the way Huckleberry Finn is being compromised to make more politically correct (at the expense of having a powerful tool that can be used to discuss racism and actually teach).

Thanks for weighing in.

By: John

John — Sat, 21 May 2011 22:43:00 +0000

There are only two things in life that I hate.
People who are intolerant to other people culture and people who cry ‘racism’ (mainly black people) at every little thing because they “were oppressed and deserve retribution”. Seriously, I have you noticed that you don’t find any American film (recently) with at least one black person in the movie for fear to being called a racist movie or something along those lines? Well I have and for those of you who think that I’m a ‘white racist’, I am of black descent so yes I can say this without being called ‘black hater’ or something along those lines.

By: John S

John S — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:29:17 +0000

I agree with Marta, the racial issues in the US are vastly different from those in Australia. I also think it’s hypocritical for us to criticize an ad in Australia not appealing to an American audience, as we don’t think about how our ads will be perceived overseas. Think about how all the conservative cultures out there view some of our sexually charged ads.

By: Marta Velasco

Marta Velasco — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:58:29 +0000

The racial tensions that are part of the US culture are not global. And so, back to the first comment, I do not believe that there is a need to add a couple more white folks to the ad if the country does not hold the racial issues the US does. I do think the ad is well done and represents the truth of the matter…that sometimes, a white person is in an odd place when surrounded by a culture that he may not completly fit in. And is ok that he doesn’t, is actually quiet nice.

By: Dean Rodgers

Dean Rodgers — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:22:45 +0000

True, but if you look at some of the comments from the Australians, it seems there is more to it than that. I think the fans weren’t randomly black, but represented fans of a very specific team in a very specific part of the world where an adding a white person may seem really odd. I really don’t know.

I worry that watering local advertising down to where it is suitable for every person in every culture around the world may result in some pretty lame ads that don’t work well for the intended audience.

By: dominiq

dominiq — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:45:32 +0000

Excellent example.

One thing the social web brings on the table is a new segmentation criteria that’s “communities”. Sometimes communities are geo-local, sometimes not.

Then, you’ve themes that transcend all communities like racism and a global brand like KFC should have been more careful on the first place. It costed nothing to add one or two white person dressed in red.

Best