Comments on: Pandas and Beavers and White Guys, oh my! http://cansomeonepleaseexplain.com/2008/06/25/pandas-and-beavers-and-white-guys-oh-my/ Looking for reason in all the wrong places. Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:41:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: jlsimons http://cansomeonepleaseexplain.com/2008/06/25/pandas-and-beavers-and-white-guys-oh-my/#comment-59 Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:01:37 +0000 http://jlsimons.wordpress.com/?p=4#comment-59 Thanks for your comment, Bentley. I understand what you’re saying, and in fact, that’s probably not far off from the explanation the creative team used in describing the ad to their clients. On its technical merits, it’s a good ad. But on the level of racism and sexism, I think it needs to be judged through a different lens. Frequently, isms are in the eye of the beholder. I don’t always agree when somebody feels something is offensive, but I’m usually not the one being offended. I am not a champion of political correctness, in fact, quite the opposite. I believe in freedom of speech and the sometimes problematic and offensive consequences of it. And that’s my point here. People get all hot and bothered about one form of offensiveness and are not bothered about another, because the first offends them, and the second doesn’t. Whether it’s last year’s Snickers ad or this year’s, somebody’s getting offended. All I’m saying is let’s be a little more even handed. Ban them all, or don’t ban any of them. I’ll handle explaining it to my daughter.

]]> By: BentleyG http://cansomeonepleaseexplain.com/2008/06/25/pandas-and-beavers-and-white-guys-oh-my/#comment-58 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:52:57 +0000 http://jlsimons.wordpress.com/?p=4#comment-58 As a as an overweight, scruffy-faced, frequently long-haired and usually sloppily dressed guy also – , I did not get offended by this ad. It’s not about the white, black, scruffy, overweight what ever…

It’s about the guy who most importantly doesn’t know enough about the game of tennis to know that you use a racket, not briefcase but can still get let on the playing field.

It’s about the professional tennis player having to stand out in a field where guys who are just there to steal the balls are let in.

Your first take on the commercial was correct – and to prove it – in your mind – make the tennis player (mind you a professional tennis player talented enough and in shape enough to demand a court with a sold out crowd watching) a women – a black person – what ever. The message still stands true… A sold out crowd would not come to see a guy play tennis with a briefcase.

I think your friend Laura is friends with Mulder and Oliver Stone.

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