From the people who brought you iSnack 2.0: Kraft’s Philadelphia sponsored Hey Hey Reunion’s black faces
Just 24 hours after starting to move on from its Vegemite iSnack 2.0 naming debacle , Kraft may have another PR crisis to deal with.
The FMCG’s giant’s Philadelphia cream cheese brand was the sponsor of last night’s controversial Red Faces segment on the Hey Hey Reunion.
The blacked up dance troop – imitating the Jackson Five – walked onto stage with Kraft’s Philadelphia cream cheese logo emblazoned on the screen.
The broadcast – which was Australia’s most watched show of Wednesday night – has generated global headlines, with the clip being much replayed.
At the time of writing, Kraft’s spokesman was not answering his mobile phone. Nine indicated that it had nothing to add to host Daryl Somers’ on-air apology last night.
Surely sombody at Kraft has to go!
User ID not verified.
This is not Kraft’s year is it?? Ha ha.
User ID not verified.
There is a rumour going around that they might also be involved in selling cigarettes to teenagers!*
*for the banjo pluckers, this is a facetious** comment
**lacking serious intent
User ID not verified.
After a job at the Tele Tim?
User ID not verified.
Why are you cricising Kraft? I’m sure they don’y know what the individual acts and the script are in advance.
The most most incredible thing about this show and this performance is why anybody would want to watch it.
User ID not verified.
Should’ve gone all the way and advertised iSnack2.0 there …
User ID not verified.
drawing a very long bow here
User ID not verified.
C’mon Tim. Stretching a little?
Less sensationalism from our favourite industry blog
User ID not verified.
Another crack at Kraft? Come on Tim. New material please.
User ID not verified.
Am I missing something here… what’s the scandal? White men imitating black men? Or was the content offensive. (Sorry, I didn’t watch).
User ID not verified.
I am honestly glad my time on this earth is limited – when did Australia become so full of do-gooders, politically correct fun-police?
It honestly makes me sick.
There is nothing racist about this? It’s not like they’re up there dropping the N-bomb and calling Darryl ‘Boss’?
Wankers.
User ID not verified.
Tim…….
Don’t join the do-gooding bandwagon with the rest of them.
User ID not verified.
dear anonymous redneck (s) – please educate yourself about the black and white minstrel thing – it had a racist intent and is universally condemned among modern pluralist societies. you need to wake up and realise that you are the exception, not everyone else
User ID not verified.
Poor Kraft…no it’s not their year but this is hardly their fault.
It pained me to sit through parts of Hey Hey whilst my husband watched it with glee, I was unfortunate enough to see Red Faces. I initially though Harry Connick Jr was over reacting. But then I thought about what he said and the full meaning of the black face and felt awful. As a predominately white nation, we have no real understanding of just how offensive this can be.
User ID not verified.
philadelphia is the city of brotherly love…surely this was done in jest
User ID not verified.
adding my agreement to Sven.. It is highly offensive, bringing back the old “Jim Crow” days..
not sure I blame the kraft marketing team though. As far as they know they where sponsoring a hugely successful comeback. They didnt know in advance the shitstorm it was going to attract..
User ID not verified.
There is none so blind as an Australian saying “but that’s not being racist”.
User ID not verified.
Is doing a parody of an entertainer not allowed?
What if a guy got up there in a short pink wig and put on a crop top and some camo shorts and started imitating PINK. Does that make him sexist against females?
Come on – we can get too politically correct sometimes.
I am in no way racist – this was a take off of the Jackson 5, NOT the black and white minstrels.
So is Robert Downey Jr – playing a black american in the comedy Tropic Thunder – racist too? Where does it start becoming racist?
User ID not verified.
I believe this Jackson Jive skit is a PR stunt that has been carefully constructed by the corporate team at Kraft, to raise awareness of a new derivative of Philadelphia Cream Cheese that is about to enter the market.
Reports are they consulted many social media experts prior to executing this with military style precision.
Support @ Tom – Tim, you need to relax with a nice little Vegemite Cheesybite & take time off from your Kraft classes
User ID not verified.
Sven, I am neither anonymous nor a redneck. Did you notice that they WEREN’T a black and white minstrel show??? It was a parody of the Jackson Five, FFS.
Sheez….
User ID not verified.
Harrick Connick sucked.
User ID not verified.
@ Ben Shepherd
I agree. Coincidence that a perfectly scripted Vegemite skit in HHIS Reunion #1.
Also makes you wonder what gave them the black and white faces…
User ID not verified.
Lucky they didn’t sponsor it using Coon
User ID not verified.
Anonymous
Are you really that naive/ignorant/a bit fick? Really? Do you have no idea how the rest of the world views Australia?
Check dis, for example
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life.....ckson-jive
@Alex – I wouldn’t worry about a hack who makes her living dumping on Australia at every available opportunity. The UK has a number of ultra right wing politicians belonging to the British National party (BNP) who won local elections thanks to their radical, almost militant anti-immigration, pro-white policies.
That would make the UK more racist than Australia, no?
User ID not verified.
Simon B – it’s fine to spoof a black entertainer. Its not fine to do using blackface.
An incomprehensibly stupid decision by the producers of that show has cost Australia massive damage to its reputation and millions in lost tourism dollars.
As Alex said, we’re already viewed as a racist nation, and that we would tolerate this on national TV has just confirmed it.
User ID not verified.
Oh I get it. Was that iSnack2.0 on their faces?
User ID not verified.
I laughed at it, I laughed real hard. Why? Because of its hilarious portrayal of a perverted freak and his sideshow. Nothing more nothing less.
User ID not verified.
Well said The Cynic…but Coon as in cheese, and named after Mr Edward Coon, is no longer a Kraft brand.
User ID not verified.
To quote Avenue Q
Everyone’s a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn’t mean we go
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one’s really color blind.
Maybe it’s a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race.
User ID not verified.
Has anyone been offended by the “white” lead singer of the group?
No?
Ahhh OK.
User ID not verified.
So the big question is… exactly how do you parody the Jackson 5 without blacking up your face and wearing an afro wig?
http://i.realone.com/assets/rn.....slarge.jpg
or are they off limits because of their skin colour?
As I’ve said in a previous posting elsewhere on this site, having them on was one of the dumbest decisions a TV producer has made in this country in a long time – but only because of its insensitivity and the fact that it would be considered offensive to an international (ie American) audience. The reality was that the Red Faces contestants were parodying a high profile entertainer who frankly deserves all the parodying we can muster – alive or dead.
There was no malicious intent, they were not wearing the offensive “minstrel” make up that everyone’s been going on about (“Blackface” makeup is more than just putting boot polish on your face) and they were not making any statement, political, racial or otherwise.
Neither by the way, was Harry Connick during his so-called “hypocritical” appearance on MadTV. People wheeling that out as a defence are just naive or trying to fuel the flames to get another day out of the “controversy” for their papers.
Unfortunately in 2009, the media’s habit of cutting and pasting clips off You Tube and blogs to easily fill column space and air time means that minor errors in judgement can become major international incidents.
I notice the previous week’s winner of Red Faces parodied a famous entertainer with Scottish heritage by donning big ears and doing a Scottish accent. It’s odd how no one found that offensive – I can only guess that the Australians who took offence (and I mean REAL offence, as opposed to the mere embarrassment that I felt) to the Jackson Jive act have, thanks to their globally dominant pop-culture, picked up the American sensitivities that come with a large African heritage and a prominent history of slavery.
It’s sad to think that a television show, movie, etc made by, and intended for, an Australian audience will from now on have to think about foreign sensitivities, but I guess that’s the world we live in.
User ID not verified.
iJive5.0 anyone?
User ID not verified.
Dear Alex Vivas, you seem to be across the UK’s reaction…
Was there a similar reaction in the UK to this then? Its Matt Lucas wearing blackface…. dressed as Mr T…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/li.....ry/gym.jpg
Curious to know your thoughts.
User ID not verified.
Well said Adam Paull – I agree wholeheartedly.
User ID not verified.
again I turn to Avenue Q for inspiration
If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
Even though we all know
That it’s wrong,
Maybe it would help us
Get along.
User ID not verified.
Harvard have put together a test for racism. Take it and see what the results are?
URL below
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
User ID not verified.
Adam Paul – I imagine every country has an element of racism and I couldn’t tell you which country is the more racist out of the two (UK and Oz). It’s more polarised/extreme in the UK, I’d say, whereas casual racism is much more acceptable down here and I think that shocks most people from the UK.
Steve – A few cute rhymes does not make racism okay. That’s just childish.
Tim’s Little Niece – I didn’t find the Little Britain sketch offensive (Mr T might have), but the Hey Hey one was. That’s probably largely because of the Black and White Minstrel Show connotations. I wasn’t alone in my conclusions as Little Britain didn’t cause any sort of international attention (that I recall), whereas Hey Hey certainly did. You have a reasonable point though, it’s certainly a complex issue.
Alex, the point that I was making was that the “journalist’ in question has a track record of putting the boot into Australia at any opportunity, so her offending article should be taken with a grain of salt this side of the planet. She conveniently overlooks the problems in her own country in order to take swipes at Oz.
User ID not verified.
Honestly, it’s fine for black comedians to go on ad nauseum about white people in a stand up routine (white people can’t dance, white people can’t drive, white people have small penises, white people are all in power) but a white person can’t do the same to a black person.
That’s a racist statement in itself. When will white people realise we are a minority, and our stupid political correctness is making us even more so?
User ID not verified.
i wonder if Mjackson Dr Deva likes the touch of a little boy as well?
User ID not verified.
Racism – at number 5 on the list of “top 10 reasons to hate Australia”, from the website of Mumbrella’s younger ‘flashpacking’ sister:
http://tumbrella.com.au/2009/0.....australia/
Or as Eddie McGuire said in a Sunday Herald Sun column back in May (at the time in reference to Sol Trujillo’s imminent departure):
“I fervently disagree that Australia is a racist country, but we can be a bit slow off the mark, like an old uncle who doesn’t trust wogs, but his mate Spiro’s okay and some of that Dago food’s not bad and so on”.
Reminds me of the type of conversation you have in the back of a London black cab (taxi). When the driver starts with “I’m not racist. But ….”
User ID not verified.
Adam,
Good point. The taxi conversation begins with “I’m not a racist but” usually ends with (referring to what they deserve) “I’d pull the fuck**g lever meself”
James
User ID not verified.
A question (slightly off topic) for all marketing gurus on this forum . . . what impact (if any) has this incident had on Harry Connick Jr and his image in this country? In my mind it has been impacted, tarnished perhaps . . . but not sure if he’s the bad guy (or if there is a bad guy) in this whole thing . . . ?
User ID not verified.
Black face is offensive. Whether it is done in Tropic Thunder or Hey Hey. Any form of cultural parody is offensive. If it is okay to make black face jokes, then it is okay to make holocaust gags and whitey jokes.
User ID not verified.
Andrew, you’ve just put many comedians, satirists and impersonators out of business.
A blanket “that’s offensive” is very narrow minded – take a look at the work of people like the brilliant Rory Bremner and Harry Enfield. Even comedians like Dave Chappelle, Whoopi Goldberg and Lenny Henry have all satirised white characters – as they should..
Comedians the world over have a right to satirise anyone they see fit, regardless of their skin colour.
The only crime of the Jackson Jive were that they weren’t funny and therefore not worth defending.
User ID not verified.
We did have blackface music in Oz, imported then copied from USA, starting around goldrush times(1870’s). Anyone surprised by another ignorant culturally insensitive decision made by those gronks at ch 9? I’m just getting over Sam Newmans & the asian monkey man vox pop
User ID not verified.
Adam, looking back at my comment, it does appear narrow minded and I should have expanded further.
Black face is steeped in infamy and has with it serious cultural and racial connotations. That is probably the reason Harry Connick Junior took such a stand. If he had not, he would have been savaged in America (a white man standing by while black people are pilloried).
Perhaps the majority of Australians see it as something inconsequential, but it is not. It is in the same league as the Holocaust and Slavery (black or modern). Satire and comedy must exist, but surely some topics are off limits.
User ID not verified.
Good point Vernon. Somethings are just wrong and we should not tolerate them. A double standard does surely exist – Sam Newman calls an Asian man a monkey, barely a murmur registers. Someone has consensual sex, scandal!
User ID not verified.
I think Aussies don’t understand that Harry Connick Jr. comes from New Orleans, Louisiana in the South of the US….where racial tension is and has always been EXTREMELY high. The violence that has ranked that city as one of the most violent in the country is born out of racial tension.
I don’t think Australians will ever respect why Americans can be so PC, b/c they dont understand the violent history they’ve endured due to racism.
Do a little homework and read about the LA riots back in the 1965 and the 90’s, look at the very public assassinations of famous American human rights activists, the civil war, images of people being hung from trees in their front yards just b/c of their skin colour, read about the Black Panthers and then Aussies can maybe start to understand why you have to at least respect the PC nature of Americans and in this particular situation Harry Connick Jr who has grown up in the centre of racial tension which still lives and breathes in many parts of the US.
American history has had a lot blood shed due to racism. on a very large scale!
I understand the intended humour of this skit, and I’m not quick to jump on the PC bandwagon but I think Aussies who critique American PC behaviour will continue to do so out of ignorance of American history unless they spend some proper actually spending time in the US, especially the deep South and New Orleans.
PS – Coon needs a re-brand; that’s just embarrassing Australia…
User ID not verified.
I’ve often wondered about that particular brand name – and wondered if Kraft, an American company, ever cop heat for it back home… Since it was originally named after it’s inventor I believe, I think keeping the name is justified – obviously it is a family name that is still in use so changing it because of any social outcry would just reinforce the stigma that poor family already has to endure thanks to the evolution of their rather unfortunate name.
It’s also odd how Kraft keeps popping up whenever the word “controversy” gets a mention!
User ID not verified.
Fair point Adam re: Coon cheese and the family name.
Americans have NO idea that Coon exists until they stroll in to the diary aisle at Coles or Woolies down here.
User ID not verified.
will hey hey please sack John Blackman because he’s actually white…
User ID not verified.
People should never forget that the Politically Correct are mainly media journalists trying to get attention and make a buck. Harry Connick was upset because of the racial connotations of the black face entertainers in the USA – If he hadnt protested, the ‘politically correct’ american media would have screamed bloody murder in their headlines. Australian media are trying to make him look like a scumbag whiner for complaining – The UK media are always trying to make everyone look like scumbags for whatever reason. The end result is the same – the media is trying to make Australians look like racists and Harry Connick like a politically correct whiner – all the time making money.
User ID not verified.