This Whole Foods Obama chicken ad misfires badly
In Manhattan's notoriously liberal Upper West Side, residents' complaints force the organic grocery chain to pull an ad they considered racist.
New York's Upper West Side may be where hungry tourists stop in at H&H Bagels for breakfast, Barney Greengrass for lox and whitefish and Zabar's to nosh on some cheese or salad. But it's also where Martin Luther King Jr. and Columbia University students voiced opposition to the Vietnam War and where Riverside Church handed out tents to Occupy Wall Street protesters.
It's the home of Lincoln Center, the Museum of Natural History, Barnard and Juilliard.
It's just not the kind of place where Whole Foods (WFM) can put up an illustration of President Barack Obama touting the grocer's chicken special and expect folks to shrug it off as anything but racist. Yet the Whole Foods on 97th Street and Columbus Avenue put up just such a caricature earlier this week before receiving a flood of complaints.
A Whole Foods spokesman told The Huffington Post that the location ditched its caricature of the president selling organic chicken "once it was brought to our attention by a shopper that it may be perceived as offensive." Judging by the neighborhood's reaction, that's an understatement at best.
"There are certain things that have been used to put down black people," neighbor Woody Henderson told NBC 4 New York.
The same Whole Foods spokesman said the store's artists created various pop-culture images to promote sales and events, and that the image wasn't meant to be offensive. Were the depiction of President Obama selling Whole Foods' 365-brand cereal, it might not have offended anyone. However, the specific combination of the image and the product being sold didn't sit well with folks on the Upper West Side's streets.
"Even if he's not the president, you're going to have an African-American promoting the sale of chicken?" Jason Nunez of the Bronx asked NBC. "They can do better than that."
This hasn't been the first culture clash for Whole Foods and its clientele. Back in January, CEO John Mackey went on National Public Radio and compared the new health care law to fascism. He's also unsettled his notoriously left-leaning consumer base by identifying himself as a libertarian in 2005 and questioning employees' right to health care in 2009.
While slip-ups like the Obama ad may fly in places like Kentucky, where a man who put a mannequin of the president eating a watermelon on his front lawn didn't see how it could be construed as racist, the Upper West Side isn't a great place to play the "Who, us racist?" game.
"I don't think you can find a more pro-Democratic neighborhood," Whole Foods neighbor Jeffrey Schaper told NBC. "They're sort of shooting themselves in the foot."
I couldn't help wonder if the the picture of a black family tending to crops in front of a large white mansion is now okay?
I also remember a story last year about the NBC cafeteria serving fried chicken and greens during Black History Month and the cafeteria supervisor was in trouble for being so "insensitive". A FOX commentator later noted, "What was she supposed to serve during Black History Month? Matzah ball soup?"
Let's leave the 'progressives' and liberals to themselves. They deserve each other.
“Yep,” he replied. “That’s why I’m dumpin’ it here, ‘cause it says: ‘Fine For Dumping Garbage.’”
Y’all kin say whut y’all want ‘about the South, but y’all never heard o’ nobody retirin’ an’ movin’ North.
… or, How obama was Re-elected, and clinton will be too:
When devastating hurricanes struck the East Coast, even
houses of worship were not spared. A local television station
interviewed a woman from New York's Harlem area and asked
how the loss of churches in the area had affected their lives.
Without hesitation, the woman replied, "I don't know 'bout all
them other peoples, but we haven't gone to Church's in years.
We gets our chicken from Popeye's."
I truly hope that some of the people who posted here are not as ignorant of history as they seem. It is truly unfortunate that you don't want to recognize that certain images have been use in the past to stereotype groups of people and that to continue to use those images continues the stereotype. For those of you who are tired of racist cries - stop promoting stereotypes. MN landlord - non of those foods have been used as images to negatively stereotype a group of people. We all need a bad guy- It's not thin skinned, its I'm a human - treat me like one. These statements prove that people who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it- if you knew the history behind the complaint, then you wouldn't want it repeated.
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