Monday, February 21, 2011

Pepsi Max

This commercial has clearly excited many people with its possible racial connotations, but I think it is all a bunch of bologna. Why are so many things these days taken as a personal attack? Obviously, it is hard to ignore someone's race regardless of who he/she is or what he/she is doing. A difference in skin color (for example) is very distinctive but only in the visual sense. Clearly, race has deep cultural and historical connotations, but “race” is really just a physical quality (or qualities) that differs among the broader human race, no different then the color of one’s hair or the size of one’s feet. Why this issue of race is continuously brought up as an issue, even in this day and age where cultures are totally and complete intertwined and people with different racial backgrounds live with each other, boggles my mind. I find it offense that others would find this commercial offensive. The reason why these problems exist in the first place is because it is continually brought up. People create the problem because they say that there is one. When we initially watched the video before the race issue was brought up, I did not see an issue whatsoever. Race had not even crossed my mind. Drawing the conclusion that Pepsi was purposely trying to make black women look violent, over-bearing, or what have you is irrational because, with that line of thought, one could have just as easily drew the conclusion that Pepsi hates joggers since the women was hit in the head with a can. The race issues would go away, to a large extent, if people stopped insinuating that there is a problem. There is no problem. Those who find it offense are trying to bring these “issues” to light because they want to strive for equality where they believe there is inequality, but their efforts are extremely counterproductive. The very first step in the effort for the racial equality in the media and beyond is to ignore race entirely. Race should never be brought up at all because if it isn’t, the problem disappears. After all, wear are skin color wherever we go, as we do our knees, ears, and fingernails. Racial differences should be celebrated as the beautiful variety of humankind, not an excuse to separate ourselves from each other by insisting that (for example) the portral of a someone in a commercial is directly correlated with these differences. Those offended people are selfish for drawing these conclusions because they only divide us. Pepsi obviously was not trying to be intentionally offense considering that the purpose of their commercial is to sell their product to as many consumers as possible, so let us drop this idea altogether and laugh at the commercial because it is pretty damn funny.

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