While reading through James’ blog post titled “Dunkin’ Donuts Went Black and Now They’re Going Back“, I was very intrigued by the topic of discussion, namely racism and marketing combined as a single issue.

I agree with what James has said in his post regarding the fact that it is ridiculous that the charcoal donut campaign by Dunkin’ Donuts has been faced by claims of racism. To me, it seems as though in Western cultures, most notably America, racism is such a sensitive issue that it is brought up in situations where it is completely irrelevant. We try so hard to contain the racism that it is seen in many situations in which it does not even exist. Mix racism with marketing and every little possible stab at a certain race is magnified. With anti-racism playing such a large role in our current society, it is difficult for marketers to create a wholesome ad that does not offend. Not only for race issues, but cultural, societal and political issues as well. This is why ad campaigns are usually targeted to their specific demographic and geographical location.

In this particular situation, we can see that this ad was originally targeted at the Thai demographic. The fact that the complaints did not come from Thailand but rather America, and that the American branch of Dunkin’ Donuts had to apologize on part of their Thai branch is somewhat ridiculous. To me, it seems as though the viewers of this ad are skewing their perception of what it actually is and making it seem like a racist advertisement when it reality, it is only portraying a colour. It is not making any connection to people with darker skin tones and it is not sending a degrading or demeaning message. The fact that people have jumped to the conclusion after seeing an advertisement with the colour black on it, with someone who is painted black to advertise their product – just boggles my mind.

Referring to Newsfeed’s article about the Dunkin’ Donuts advertisement, it says that the CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts Thailand insists that the outrage for the ad stems from “paranoid American thinking” which I can’t completely disagree with. Stepping back from the whole race situation, in a marketing point of view, it was the proper step for the American branch to take in apologizing. There would have been no benefit to the company to justify their position and would have only damaged their company reputation further – to reiterate James’ statement in his post. All in all, the issue of racism is subjective and is perceived differently by everyone. Such was this blog post – made up entirely of subjective thoughts and opinions on this particular “racial” issue.