‘Racist’ Cape Town Fish Market advert banned
Cape Town Fish Market has withdrawn its advert after watchdog calls it racist. What do you think?
THE South African advertising watchdog has banned a Cape Town Fish Market advert, saying it is racist.
The 46-second advert features, among other characters, a blacked-up man who looks like a dictator. The advert hints at corruption when the man wants to “put it on the expenses account”.
Following two complaints, the Advertising Standards Authority concluded that the character was “depicted with a derogatory intention, speaks with a thick accent, and recalls a stereotypical black dictator.
“To achieve the desired result of showing a corrupt official, there was no need for the man to be made out to be black,” the watchdog claimed.
In the commercial, one white man takes on different characters in order to portray how the truth can be manipulated. Inverted commas are used before each character lies.
Cape Town Fish Market, which also a number of restaurants in the UK, claimed that “well worn stereotypes of each character were used to dial up the humour and to ensure that the audience realised that the characters were playing on clichés and not reflecting on the real world,” the ASA reported.
Watch the advert below.
