Glacéau + Racist Voicemail Message
My friend Reagan sent me an email last week about the voicemail message at Glacéau.
I placed the message in my “to blog about” pile:
Call this number: (718) 746-0087. It’s for Glaceau, maker of drinking water products (“Hydrate responsibly.”) On the other end, you’ll get their voicemail system, narrated by some dude with a horribly fake Asian accent, doing kung fu schtick.”
A beverage company in New York, Glacéau makes Vitamin Water, Fruit Water, and Smart Water. Apparently, Glacéau received enough complaints about their voicemail that they decided to change it. A member of a higher education association listserv received a response from a customer relations specialist from Glacéau:
We’re sorry to hear our outgoing message has offended you. Our intention with our message system (and all of our points of contact with consumers) is to communicate key information about our products and company in a light-hearted way. With that said, we have taken the negative
feedback about the message seriously and have replaced it with a new one. We welcome your feedback on the new version and hope you will continue to share your thoughts on the company and our products.
I missed hearing the live version of the voicemail. The new message was in place when I called. However, a friend of mine recorded the message. It’s unbelievable that a company would have such a racist, stereotypical caricature as their official voicemail message.
When did “light-hearted” become marketing speak for “racist caricature”?
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I actually heard a longer version that just went on and on when I called it. I think it was the day before they changed it to the non-”light-hearted” version. It was kind of unbelievable to me, too. I’m trying to imagine the marketing meeting where someone was like, “Hey, I have an idea…Let’s sell vitamin water by making someone’s culture into a joke.” And everyone else goes, “Great idea!” Huh?
Annette C Martel
13 Feb 07 at 3:20 pm
i called too after reading your comments… just to see what kind of response i would get. they sent me the following:
we’re sorry to hear our outgoing message has offended you. our intention with our message system (and all of our points of contact with consumers) is to communicate key information about our products and company in a light-hearted way. with that said, we have taken the negative feedback about the message seriously and have replaced it with a new one.
we welcome your feedback on the new version and hope you will continue to share your thoughts on the company and our products.
i called again the next day and they had already changed the message. i love the stuff and if you read their labels i can see why they called it “light hearted,” …they seem to have a very unique/sarcastic personality all together. i really didn’t think it was offensive… people are doing and saying more important things in the world that i can bitch about. not to mention, they were on top of their shit by changing it so quickly.
lauren
13 Feb 07 at 4:01 pm
Annette – Thanks for commenting!
Lauren – Your IP Address: 63.138.199.66 (information that WordPress sends me when people post comments…) matches an IP Address that showed up in my web statistics program:
63.138.199.66
Region New York
City Whitestone
ISP Energy Brands
I looked up “Energy Brands” via the great Google.
I just want to clarify, when you say that the voicemail message was “not offensive,” are you saying that as an employee of Glaceau? Because it would seem a little disingenuous if you are defending a company that you work for on a comment on my site. Especially when your comment makes it seem like you’re not affiliated with Glaceau.
Eric Stoller
13 Feb 07 at 4:45 pm
The ‘Stats master strikes again!
{grabs popcorn}
dc
Dan Crouch
13 Feb 07 at 5:06 pm
l: “i really didn’t think it was offensive”
I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and assume that, in addition to getting paid by Glaceau (or its parent company), lauren isn’t Asian. Therefore, lauren has no authority whatsoever to declare the message inoffensive.
l: “i can see why they called it “light hearted,” …they seem to have a very unique/sarcastic personality all together”
I can assure you that i have many years experience in the fine art of sarcasm and yet NEVER would i find such stereotypical mockery to be funny. Racism isn’t funny. What next? Glaceau will have guest appearances by Amos and Andy?
vegankid
13 Feb 07 at 5:48 pm
So BUUUUUSTED!
As a marketing professional, I believe that’s called ‘spin’.
Eric, I dig the randomness of your blog.
Blake
13 Feb 07 at 7:31 pm
Vegankid – Thanks for commenting!
Blake - What do you mean “random”?
My site, Eric Stoller’s Blog, is all about higher education, social justice, technology, recipes, luggage, music, photography, accessibility,….ok, maybe you’re right
Eric Stoller
13 Feb 07 at 9:48 pm
Dan – I hope you’re enjoying your popcorn! It just goes to show the multitude of ways that one can use website statistics.
Eric Stoller
13 Feb 07 at 9:51 pm
Thanks for posting this, Eric, I haven’t heard about it anywhere else. And it matters to me, as a dude who guzzles sports drinks after working out or a night of partying. And I really like this particular brand; but if they got the yellowface going, well, that kinda sucks. Because, honestly, there’s no way for white folks to make yellowface “light-hearted” and inoffensive. Even among Asian folk, only Margaret Cho has pulled it off; so be forewarned, this is material that’s just likely to bomb. (Eddie Murphy thinks parodying Asians and fat women is awesome! and Eddie Murphy sucks.)
I notice that many energy drink companies, and “new age” companies in general (from tea to shampoo), are going for Orientalist imagery in marketing these products; you know, gongs, chinky fonts, monasteries in jagged mountains, old Asian wise men, inscrutable sayings, that kinda thing. It’s funny for an actual Chinese martial artist like me, because on the one hand I enjoy seeing my culture (well…contorted slices of it, anyway) emerging into the mainstream, on the other hand the flattening of meanings and the sloppy mixing of Asian cultures and the exoticized fetishized stereotyping that occurs in the process kinda takes the thrill away. I don’t know, I guess it’s probably kinda cool for white folks to get access to these things either way, so I don’t wanna be a spoil sport. It’s just a little weird from this side of the cultural equation.
Keep up the great work, Eric! You rock.
Peace.
Kai
14 Feb 07 at 5:24 am
that’s awesome with the stats program revealing “Lauren’s” association!!!
Reagan
14 Feb 07 at 11:20 am
Where can I get a job commenting on blogs and pretending NOT to be a corporate flunky? Maybe I should interview with Glaceau. Wait, no, that won’t work – I have a soul that I am keeping perfectly busy without selling it to the forces of evil (by which I mean capitalism in general and racist energy drink companies specifically). And they already have Lauren! (Nothing personal, sweetie; I am sure that you are a perfectly nice person in real life aside from being racist and dishonest.)
My more academic side (because my graduate work is not actually in snarky comments) does want me to point out that this is an example of how racism doesn’t necessarily have to be overt or intentional. Rather, it is the fact that things like this answering message can go so largely unnoticed by the general public that indicates just how pervasive racism is.
Annette – excellent point about the marketing meeting. I think it’s true of the dominant culture in general, too! It’s as if there’s a colossal cultural marketing meeting in which a bunch of middle-class, able-bodied, white, heterosexual men sit around and come up with ways to offend, oppress, and marginalize the rest of us. The fact that racism/sexism/heterosexism/classism/ableism is everywhere without such a concerted, organized effort is what’s really terrifying.
Michelle Marie
14 Feb 07 at 12:48 pm
[...] So Eric blogs about a racist voicemail message created by the makers of Vitamin Water. One of the first commenters says (paraphrasing), “I didn’t find it offensive but rather comedic and clever, and OHMYGOSHILOVEVITAMINWATER!” Apparently didn’t realize that it’s trivial to track IP addresses… [...]
Wordpress 1, Vitamin Water 0 | Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson
15 Feb 07 at 8:02 am
That is awesome that Lauren the Lameass Corporate Dweeb got nailed so quickly. Kudos to you, Eric. And lauren, next time, try to be a little more subtle in your posts. I know you enjoy getting a pat on the head by your corporate masters (“good doggie, lauren. good doggie!”), but you might want to leave out the gushy “i love Glaceau they’re so awesome and not at all racist” crap out the next time you’re looking to suck up to your employer.
Chris
15 Feb 07 at 4:53 pm
Hahahaha Lauren got busted!!! I couldn’t hear the audio too well, but it just sounded stupid. If you’re gonna make fun of an Asian accent, at least make it sound accurate!!
Le
15 Feb 07 at 5:08 pm
Man, that guy Lauren is REALLY lame. It is so lame that it makes me wanna puke. I mean, come on. It’s one thing to point to the fact that Glaceau (what kind of un-American brand name is that anyways?) removed the message within a day; it’s altogether something else to suck your employer’s arse so hard that you have to come up with shameless apologies such as “oooo…they’re so lighthearted and cool…” No, your big boss ain’t no lighthearted and cool. I bet they’re gunners, dorks, losers and big time tools from Ivy League schools who had serious self-esteem issues, who had to diss racial minority to establish their manhood.
Thanks, Eric, for busting this racist, dishonest corporate dork.
James
15 Feb 07 at 10:22 pm
Dang I used to drink that vitamin drink but i will boycott it now…i’ll drink the Sobe one instead…
Lauren is TOTALLY BUSTED hahahah…eric you a genius for seeing through Lauren’s disguise.
Totally made my day.
David
15 Feb 07 at 11:07 pm
Great post and investigative work on the IP…As for “Glaceau’s” corporate mentality—let me see, there is so much hate in this world…why don’t I just ADD to it!!! Why don’t these cowards just “come out” and declare their hatred!? Glaceau is a NY corp….I lived in NY- I know the mentality…be a MAN and say I HATE a certain portion of America and I don’t want to do business with “little yellow people”! Glaceau- get some balls and say that- why are you hiding behind “Lauren”???
Sometimes, I think it may be better and more HONEST if these racists businesses just put a sign out and say “NO Chinese or DOGS allowed” (read history about this famous sign) at least I will know where these sub-humans are coming from…..So how many other corporations REALLY think like this??
Thanks again Eric!
Derek
16 Feb 07 at 8:06 am
Used to drink their stuff. Not no more…been advising AA merchants in the LA area to stop purchasing their products. Hopefully the word will get around. Let’s boycott the company’s products for good and spread the word to others (i.e. Abercrombie & Fitch).
jong
16 Feb 07 at 9:59 am
Too bad… I was a Smart Water addict, but I’ll skip all the racism and calories from now on.
Jack
16 Feb 07 at 2:31 pm
Maybe i’m missing something, is Derek’s coment satire? I hope so. Otherwise, I think it’s worse than Glaceau’s message.
Nice work on busting Lauren’s sock puppet routine.
G-Dub
17 Feb 07 at 9:24 am
Ohhhh, let’s look a moment at what Eric Stoller drinks. “If you see me and I look sleepy, please find a coffee shop and immediately order a 12 oz. white chocolate mocha with soy.”
White chocolate mocha? Hmmm. Now if you ask me, that right there seems to indicate you have issues, man. You’re uncomfortabe with pure, chocolate mocha? You ever hear the expression Black is Beautiful? No, Eric, you gotta water it down with WHITE chocolate. You uncomfortable kissing a black woman? I bet you are. If you were any kind of a non-rascist, you’d be drinkin’ straight black coffee. Black coffee is beautiful. I think you need counseling, man.
And if you see me and I look sleepy, Eric, buy me a bottle of Thunderbird and a pack of Camels. Nuthin’ gits me lit better. And I kiss all the black women down at the strip club I can git my hands on, after my Worker’s Comp check arrives. No wimpy indecisive half-black, half-white cocoa drink for me, brother.
Meantime, I’ll be lookin’ for an amendment to your little introductory profile of yours, to wit: “I drink BLACK coffee,” followed by an apology.
Balertwine
17 Feb 07 at 10:11 am
Folks. I went to the Glaceau’s wikipedia page on this, and apparently some Glaceau lackey had removed the information this racist incident from it! I of course put that section back. These corporate dorks really are shameless to the extreme. They are a bunch of totally emasculated no-good-nicks who didn’t even have the balls of going through the formal discussion process wikipedia uses in deleting contents. They think they could monitor internet discourse. Hell they’re wrong on this one!
James
18 Feb 07 at 2:05 pm
[...] A week ago I blogged about Glacéau’s racist voicemail message. Upon publishing the post, which included an audio recording of the voicemail, I received an interesting comment from Lauren. [...]
Glacéau + Racist Voicemail Redux » Eric Stoller’s blog
20 Feb 07 at 11:51 am
Are you guys serious about being offended by that VM or just sarcastic? I thought it was pretty funny.
JT
23 Feb 07 at 4:20 pm
JT – Yes, we are serious. Why do you think the voicemail was funny?
Eric Stoller
23 Feb 07 at 4:25 pm
Since JT found the voicemail funny, he is, almost by definition, a racist; why not just leave him alone and not bother replying him? BTW – some corporate hack from Glaceau mutilated the wikipedia page again. I went there today morning and the Glaceau racism section was gone. So I put it back.
These people are out of their head. They don’t know who they’re dealing with.
James
24 Feb 07 at 7:02 am
James – Thanks for being our Wikipedia guardian
I asked JT why he (she?) found it funny because I would like to attempt to engage JT in a process of self-awareness. If I call JT a racist and leave him (her?) alone, then I am doing myself a disservice. It took me a long time to get to where I am at on my journey as an anti-racist activist.
Without the support of teachers, mentors, friends, etc. I would not be where I am at. They could have just called me a racist and left me alone, but they didn’t…
Thanks for reading.
Eric Stoller
24 Feb 07 at 12:39 pm
Thanks for your kind words, Eric. I was being rash. The reason I was upset over the wikipedia issue was because this past winter I took a course with Charles Nesson, a pretty famous expert on cyberlaw, and he shared with us his vision of a democratic cyberspace where human individuals, as individual nodes of a larger network, could connect with one another and relate to one another genuinely, the end result being an infrastructure; a “common” for innovation, so to speak.
To that end, I just can’t stand folks (like Glaceau’s lackeys) who try to stifle cyber-elaboration. The moment you sweep things beneath the carpet; the moment you stifle speech, you freeze freedom of the mind with it. I think both liberals and conservatives are with me on this one.
James
24 Feb 07 at 12:59 pm
James – How can you tell that someone from Glaceau is modifying the Wikipedia entry? Is it the same IP as “Lauren”? In any case, thanks for being on the lookout for the wiki enry
Eric Stoller
24 Feb 07 at 5:45 pm
Eric Stoller and all of your ILK:
(I like the word ilk. It has a built-in prejudicial connotation, doesn’t it?)
Grow up. When it comes to humor, NOTHING is sacred. Nothing.
Humor by nature is in bad taste, to someone. Hogan’s Heroes was funny to all but the Germans who were portrayed as being collectively stupid. Oh, but you say, they only made fun of Nazis, and it’s OK to make fun of Nazis. Fine, who elected you to decide what humor is in bad taste and what humor is in good taste? Nobody. Go ahead and spout off on your little website all you want, I will persist in making fun of YOU, because you are not funny.
Look at the movie Pulp Fiction. Hugely popular movie with a cult following. Yet there is a scene in there where a black guy gets shot in the back seat of a car, and then people proceed to argue about whose job it is to clean up “the nigger” in the back seat. Oh, since one of the guys arguing was black, this is OK? My point is, everything that’s funny is going to be offensive to someone. When a comedian acts like a low-IQ individual, such as Steve Martin in The Jerk, we all might laugh at it except the low IQ individual in the theater who realizes Steve is making fun of people who ain’t that bright. Oh, he’ll try to laugh, but he’ll also realize that society often victimizes the mildly mentally retarded as a subject of humor.
So some drink company has a guy doing an attempt to satirize a kung fu movie star type. BIG DEAL !!!! So what? Why are your panties in such of a bunch? If the attempt didn’t hit the nail on the head, maybe some other comedian will do better. Or are take-offs of kung-fu movie types off-limits? Screw you! Sincerely! EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO SATIRE, FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE. Go away before I blow my nose in your general direction. Go run for a band-aid for your bruised little hurt feelings. Now you guys want to cram this forever down Glacieu’s throat on Wikipedia? Don’t you have ANYTHING better to do? Jesus fucking Christ! Oh, I offended a Jesus freak. Crawl off and watch The Life of Brian. I’m more popular than Jesus, anyways. Stone Lennon! Burn his albums! Stick it in his Wikipedia page! Over and over and over! Hey, I heard somebody said something offensive to someone in an office in Kansas City today. Four people laughed but the fifth didn’t like the negative image portrayed of women with mustaches. No one should make fun of women so unfortunate as to have dark body hair on their faces. My dog took a shit and I made fun of him while he did it. Canine abuse.
You guys really irritate me. My duck is offended that a white guy dressed up in a duck outfit and cheered the crowd on at a football stadium. Why not get a REAL duck to do it? And who are these American Indians in Illinois so offended by the Fighting Illini fellow cheering on the crowd? They are NOT from the original tribe that lived in Illinois. No, that tribe is extinct, all killed off by forefathers of those American Indians living and protesting today. Isn’t that ironic — the Iroquois fought the Illini tribe to take away their happy hunting gounds, and now that they’re all dead, the Iroquois descendants protest that a cheerleader can’t wear an American Indian outfit and portray the tribe THEY slaughtered. Oh, sure, white people helped kill them off, or they intermarried and no one around nowadays can legitimately lay claim to represent the original tribe. They’re gone, just like your dead grandmother who ain’t smelling too good at the moment.
Now I’m not from Illinois nor do I go to football games, but what is the big fucking problem with a cheerleader dressed as an American Indian? Was he out there acting like a drunk American Indian? I bet not. Was he out there acting like a stupid Indian? Nope. He was proud to portray a strong-willed American Indian willing to fight to the finish to WIN. Ooooooh, what a negative connotation! BULLSHIT.
Every Cub Scout, every little boy, is fascinated by the ornate and beautiful outfits made of feathers and handcrafted beads that American Indians wear. Nothing is cooler to a kid. A lot of grownups love it too. Should I be ashamed of the Aztec type of design in the cloth on my couch? Should I hide away the Indian head nickels I have? Don’t say I don’t get it. I get it. People love American Indian garb, and they love the jewelry, and they liked the fellow who represented the fighting Illini. We want American Indians around, because we love their culture. How many times in the United States today did someone say, “You’re part American Indian? Cool!” Yes, plenty of times. We live in a modern society with refrigerators and cars and computers, but we yearn for the simpler ways of life of the American Indians. We go camping and we love tipis and we love turquois and all things American Indian. We love to go to watch genuine dances put on by tribes that succeed in getting their youth to continue the culture instead of going to rock concerts and smoking Marlboros and pot. That’s the true picture.
Meanwhile, you’re sitting there, your grandparents were Czech or Polish, and you don’t know the language or a single recipe your grandmother brought over from the old country. Instead of protesting about the fellow doing his best to look like a genuine American Indian, maybe you should learn how to make grandma’s cabbage soup, and then teach your children how to make it too.
I believe in American Indian pride. I believe in Black pride. I believe in the pride of every unique culture on the face of the earth. Except maybe those cannibals in the heart of the Amazon jungle. They go a little too far with clinging to the old ways.
OK, I gotta quit here, and I STILL don’t see an apology from Eric Stoller for drinking that WHITE chocolate wimpy cappuchino crap. Black coffee is beautiful, you wussy. Ha!
Balertwine
2 Mar 07 at 7:20 pm
To sum up — Glaceau’s voicemail message was racist, it has been covered on Wikipedia, and I am still drinking white chocolate mochas with soy.
Balertwine, thanks for commenting. I hope you enjoyed your run of stream of consciousness commentary that neither added to or detracted from the conversation.
Eric Stoller
6 Mar 07 at 2:28 pm
thank you, eric, for spreading awareness. i am chinese, and i find it highly offensive and not amusing at all. i’ve had enough of yellow peril stereotypes to last a lifetime. give me any more kung fu-related ads or ching chang chong or chinese accents, and i’d beat you unconscious if i could. i want to stop taking all this personally, but i can’t. if people were more educated about asian american history, we would not have crap like this to be joked about. i’ve never heard an answering machine being “light-hearted” about african american culture.
Caroline
24 Mar 07 at 3:32 pm
Balertwine, this is not about maturity. i adore racist jokes, but only from people who are self-aware. if people can still joke after learning about all the hypocritical bullshit one group would inflict upon another, i see nothing wrong with that. but this message machine is just enforcing more stereotypes. the only people who would think this is funny are those who aren’t aware how hurtful and despicable it is.
Caroline
24 Mar 07 at 3:37 pm
this is doubly interesting because vitamin water did a badminton commercial for us just a little while back [6mths ago ish?]. us badminton kids get super excited whenever we get media coverage so i remember passing around the little youtube url with a lot of anticipation, only to see asian americans exoticized and made foreign again. two of the best usa badminton players, bob and howard, became something like ‘lao and yang’, and went from repping USA to being ‘chinese players’ [as if the chinese badminton team would ever be so desperate as to degrade themselves like that]. the clip has them facing the ‘american team’ which featured david ortiz and brian urlacher [white and black], and then, naturally being overpowered [emasculated] by them. what made me even more angry was that i was the one of the ONLY ones angry, most of my friends just laughed it off and thought the clip was ‘funny’. now i see that evidently vitamin water treats racism as a regular marketing trick, and its not some innocent accidental blunder.
hanae
12 Oct 07 at 4:09 pm
Hi Hanae – I agree…that commercial was awful. Thanks for commenting.
Eric Stoller
14 Oct 07 at 1:10 pm
i do not have anything to do with this company unlike lauren.. however i agree with her… if Asian people don’t have a problem with MXC aired on Spike TV then they probably don’t care about this stupid message…ironically it was probably a white person that felt like it was their duty to prove to everyone and themselves that we are not the “bad guys” and while I’m not a rascist by any means I think nowadays white people are the ones makin such a big deal out of shit like this because when it comes down to it we’re just afraid to laugh…we just dont want to look like THE MAN so we create more racist accusations than any race!
Christina
26 Oct 07 at 11:18 am
When did this country lose sight of humor and the fact that things can still be funny? The same people that complain about racism are the same people that claim to have friends of a “certain race” when it suits their own purpose. I realize that this story is old but it is equally, if not more so, ignorant to be a Caucasian complaining about the inequalities and atrocities that have befallen other races. Humor is colorblind…it is what it is. Grow up people and stop using what you are as a crutch.
Adri
5 Feb 08 at 1:40 pm
[...] Glacéau + Racist Voicemail Message Tags: blogging, eric stoller, Social Justice [...]
Comments in moderation » Eric Stoller’s Blog | social justice | higher education | technology
5 Feb 08 at 2:23 pm
I’ve never understood this – why does humor require that someone’s identity be attacked?
In other words, why is racism funny?
I ask this in all seriousness – what is it about racist jokes that we, as individuals, find funny? What is going on inside our heads?
Humor is learned, after all, and not genetic – where (and why) are we learning that racist jokes are “funny”?
Dennis
5 Feb 08 at 6:05 pm
Humor as well as US society at large is not colorblind.
Perhaps it is frightening for “a Caucasian complaining about the inequalities and atrocities that have befallen other races” to openly write about racism? Maybe I am not supposed to openly write about things like white privilege and racist advertisements that stereotype people of color? Adri’s comment attacks my maturity, intellect, and sprinkles a bit of ableism on top.
Eric Stoller
5 Feb 08 at 6:19 pm
I happened to stumble upon your blog while doing an ad campaign for Glaceau as a school project. Thought I’d put my two cents in…
The true evil in this situation lies in the fact that we’ve all been reduced to a society of babies preoccupied with our fear of the “politically incorrect.” A fabricated term designed to conveniently dispose of all the “things we don’t want talked about anymore.” Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it guarantee anyone’s right to not be offended. Glaceau is a privately held company that has every right to be as offensive (if you in fact see it that way) as they want to in their add campaigns. How ironic that a parody of Asian culture is deemed offensive yet no one seems to be offended by the fact that this country is being inundated with defective/dangerous products from the very same point of origin. Eat their toxic foods, give their dangerous/defective toys to our children and make sure you do it in a manner that doesn’t offend anyone.
What a fucking joke.
zen
7 Feb 08 at 10:57 am
Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it guarantee anyone’s right to not be offended.
Nobody’s claiming it does. Glaceau has the right to be offensive towards whatever groups it wants. And consumers have the right to voice their opposition. What’s the problem again?
SarahMC
8 Feb 08 at 6:47 am
SarahMC,
I agree with you – but I’d also suggest that the line of text you quoted does not mean what it appears to. Instead, it’s often used as code for something like “Not only do I have a right to offend you, but you don’t have a right to fight back.”
It’s an expression of (often white & male) privilege – and it’s intended to prevent challenges to that privilege.
It’s also a reflection of valuing the rights of private companies and private property over people, which I find disgusting.
Dennis
8 Feb 08 at 11:42 am
is everyone here except for balertwine and myself that ridiculous? come on people. seriously. the one and only thing that we cant ignore in this situation is that fact that we no longer live in a society that concerns itself with worrying about the hurt feelings of all 6 billion or so people that occupy our planet. in fact, have we ever lived in that kind of world? no! if you wake up and put your brains back in your heads you’ll realize that living in the world today it is impossible to satisfy the needs of every single person breathing. Its impossible to use any kind of humor without someone feeling the pains of a bruised ego. Everyone, every race, every age and gender-all have humor about them. There is no getting around it people. You cant have it both ways, so i would decide now exactly what it is you want before you try to go bold and speak out about a company who’s purpose is that to help people. it was humor, not anything more or less than that. get over it, you all sound pathetic.
tmonkey83
25 Feb 08 at 8:17 pm
[...] Glacéau + Racist Voicemail Message [...]
Web Stats Addict (WSA) » Eric Stoller’s Blog
27 May 08 at 7:39 pm
please explain to me what’s racist about this message?
Denyse
28 Aug 08 at 7:48 am
Denyse: Are you Asian? Or just clueless?
This is the equivalent of having a bunch Latinos talk in fake Spanglish accents dancing around in mariachi costumes with a chihuahua in one hand a mop in another. Or maybe a couple of African Americans dressed in animal print loinclothes sipping grape juice and eating fried chicken.
OH WAIT: Glaceau’s Formula 50, endorsed by 50 Cent happens to be a grape-flavored drink. It gets better and better folks! How about the ping-pong Vitamin Water Commercial with the two Asians (who are actually Americans) pull off the weak emasculated Asian man stereotype, getting their asses handed to them by two other “American players,” one of which is actually Dominican?
Glaceau is synonomous with structural racism on all levels of their organization. From advertising probably down to production and management. Their tactics to control the (intelligent) public’s perception of them, via vandalizing the WIki entry etc. is shameless and should not be overlooked. BOYCOTT GLACEAU BY ALL MEANS AND SPREAD THE WORD.
RealAmerican
28 Jan 09 at 11:43 am
Oh, apparently Glaceau, also trading under the Energy Brands label is a subsidiary of Coca- Cola. Another reason to drink Pepsi, if you must drink cola.
BTW, if any of you have friends/family in Asia and are offended by these ads and Glaceau’s tactics, pass on this information. Let’s hit them where it hurts, in their pocketbooks.
RealAmerican
28 Jan 09 at 11:48 am
BTW, if you are not of Asian decent, you have ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to tell Asians/Asian Americans/Asian Candaians/ Asian Europeans and Asian Latinos how we should feel. We are out there and we are watching and listening. We will protest and we will spread the word.
To those who posted above saying we should not be offended, how dare you? To those above who said Glaceau’s marketing techniques are not racist, how many of you are “minorities”? You must be truly brainwashed by the mainstream media! The day we “minorities” finally back each other up, is a new and glorious day. Divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book. Think about it.
RealAmerican
28 Jan 09 at 11:56 am
What? There are still idiots out there that think stereotyping is funny?
What, should we throw the mud back in all caucasian people’s faces and portray them all as incestuous, mumbling-and-slurring, uneducated hicks? Ha, ha, ha, funny, when the table’s turned, too, right? How’s that for an articulate Asian?
Seriously, who let the idiots have teh internetz?
jack
20 Mar 09 at 12:43 pm
[...] Eric Stoller asks “When did “light-hearted” become marketing speak for “racist caricature”?” [...]
Thoughts on an Eric Stoller post
27 Jan 10 at 4:39 pm