Last year I married my husband. He’s white and I’m black. His parents were in attendance, as was my mother. My father passed away when I was 15 years old, and up until then he was completely absent from my life. If he were alive, I don’t think I would have invited him to the wedding.
Do I think the Heinz ad is racist? (When a Heinz ad features racist stereotypes to sell pasta sauce, it’s important to speak out. So I did so, October 8). No. Can you understand why people would be upset about this? Okay. But for me, and for many others (not just black people), fatherlessness is a reality. It shouldn’t be hidden.
The bottom right corner of the ad says “Based on a true story." I know from personal experience that this family structure is actually true. I don’t think Heinz is right to add a black father for optics, nor do I think the lack of a black father is a reason for Heinz to ignore the story.
Black people rely on face-based politics. We must be presented in a way that represents the best possible version of our community. In this case, it is as if we should ignore the reality that the father is absent, but the father is present. Why should we lie about it? I am who I am today because of my single mother. If I were the person behind this story, I would have rejected the idea of including the father in order to avoid negative stereotypes. Because that story simply isn’t true.
I believe Heinz has a responsibility to be aware of how this image is perceived publicly. Having worked in advertising for over 10 years, I would have added more guests. At my wedding, my brother and uncle surrounded me at the top table, reflecting the strong male presence in my life.
And because the campaign is a series of ads, it may reflect the different realities of blended and black families, not just families with absentee fathers. But ultimately, this ad is based on a true story and has a right to exist like any other ad.
hannah davis
Deptford, London
The Heinz Pasta Sauce poster was disgusting, and Nels Abbey was right to denounce it as a racial stereotype. But I think his analysis of the message behind the image misses the most obvious element. That said, the couple reflects the family figures who attended the wedding with Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry (he’s even a little ginger) (i.e. the absentee father is, in fact, white). ). The viewer is probably trying to empathize and be amused by the bride’s careless joy and appetite at the expense of social pretense (never mind what the red stain on her pure white wedding dress means) please).
I’m not defending it (at all), but in any critique it’s worth considering how advertisers and their agencies, however incompetent, were probably going to connect with the public. I think there is.
kate white
london
On a recent trip to London, I saw this ad on the tube a few weeks before the big deal. I am a father of biracial children. The bride in this photo looks like my daughter, but I have fairer skin than the old man. Who can say that he is not the bride’s father?nicholas morganistanbul, Türkiye
As a fatherless child of a single mother, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be upset about Heinz’s fake wedding photo where either the groom or groom (in dispute) is the child of a single mother. , it’s kind of unpleasant.
Would there be an uproar if Heinz posted a photo of a baked bean lover with no legs? I doubt it. Suggesting that while it is normal to have a father, to represent someone without a father is to perpetuate racist stereotypes, it doesn’t seem very inclusive, nor is it pasta It’s also unclear why either one deserves representation in a mock-up photo designed to sell sauces. Can fathers and fathers, of all ethnicities, unite over the disgusting ready-made Bolognese and teach Heinz a real lesson?
Dr. Craig Reeves
Birkbeck, University of London
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