media posts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujip5DxwGQw Here's a commercial that didn't last long on the airwaves. In the early 1960s, Pillsbury decided to compete with Kool-Aid and came out with their own line of instant drink mixes. These "pre-sweetened" mixes contained cyclamates instead of sugar ("so you don't mess up the kitchen adding sugar") and each flavor was assigned a cartoon character: Goofy Grape, Freckle Face Strawberry, Loud-Mouth Lime, and Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry. However, two of these characters met with widespread disapproval: Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry. The backlash from protesters caused Pillsbury to pull these racially-insensitive characters almost immediately; subsequently they were changed to Jolly-Olly Orange and Choo-Choo Cherry. By the 1970s, cyclamates had been outlawed by the FDA, and Funny Face drink mixes became "sugar sweetened." By that time, Loud-Mouth Lime had been changed to Loud-Mouth Punch, and a new flavor, Lefty Lemonade, had been added to the group. (more) (less)

I felt that this commercial went along with the CMCM of "Welcome to Cleveland" for last week. This “Funny Face Instant Drink” commercial from the early 1960’s included characters that represented the different flavors of drink mix. This commercial included two controversial characters of Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry, they were the only two characters that represented any race or ethnicity. Although the other characters were present in the commercial, both Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry were featured in the commercial. Injun Orange wore feathers and had face paint on. He also spoke in a slow deep voice. Chinese Cherry had squinty eyes, buck teeth and spoke rapidly. These characters were used to make money. Pillsbury was trying to compete with Kool-aid and I think this controversial move probably gained them some of the attention they wanted, although the commercial didn’t last very long and was banned. This exploitation of ethnic groups is used in many ways in capitalism as a way to compete and make as much money as possible. Even though the commercial was eventually banned, it gained much attention. Pillsbury is still a major company today, so obviously this stunt didn’t affect them in the long run. Were the Indian and Chinese characters thought to have funny faces?


I was a little surprise when I saw this commercial. Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry didn’t have anything to do with the flavors or any relevance to the commercial. Did and do Indians grow oranges or do Chinese grow cherries? Children would have been the ones watching the commercial and drinking this drink, what impression did this leave on the children who watched it. I do not agree with the way this commercial was presented and am glad it was taken off the air. I would like to think that the characters were designed just to be fun and different, but since the Injun and the Chinese characters were so different from the rest, it leads me to believe that they were intentional.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, is a film about two young male Americans that were mistaken as terrorist on an airplane on the way to Amsterdam. Before boarding the plane Kumar is stopped by airport security to do a random search. Kumar causes a scene, saying that the guard was racist, although the guard was trying to say he wasn’t because he was black. When they first board the plane, one woman immediately imagines Kumar as wearing a turban and talking with a Middle Eastern accent. In reality Kumar is a descendant of India. No matter want Kumar or Harold said everyone on the plane assumed that they were making a bomb. When they were turned over to homeland security, the person in charge immediately thought that Kumar was an Al Qaeda terrorist and wondered why Harold had funny eyes. Harold is of Korean decent. Without asking many questions they were sent directly to a prison on Guantanamo Bay without even a trial. They were not given any rights as American citizens. Evan when their parents were questioned, they were treated as though they spoke the languages of their homelands. Again, homeland security didn’t listen to what the parents had to say, they had already made their minds up that Harold and Kumar were guilty. Though out the movie there was representation of stereotyping in the United States and not just from Homeland Security of “white people”. One their way to try to find a friends house, Harold and Kumar got lost in Alabama. When the came up to a basketball game of all black men they immediately fled in the other direction. When they hit a fire hydrant, they group came them and they ran, but the group was coming to assist them. Later when the group was questioned by homeland security, they were thought to be lying, even one member was a well respected orthodontist. They film also showed stereotyping of the Klu Klux Klan and an white inbreeding in the south. This film was intended to make fun of the stereotyping in the United States. I think this was a good representation of what can and does happen. I really makes you think about how you react to people of different races and ethnicities.

Kung Fu a television series that aired in the early 1970’s, is a good representation of the era during and right after the civil war. This addresses many issues dealing with race during this time period. Many of the episodes deal with the issues that black people and Chinese people have in the United States during this time period. Caine the main character in each episode is half Chinese and half white. He called chinaman by most people. In the episode, “In Uncertain Bondage” aired 2/7/1974 is about an ill southern belle that is kidnapped by several people that included one of her servants to extort money from her father. Although this episode is about the period that followed the civil war, this servant had remained with the family. Caine had helping the women because she was sick and the kidnappers wanted him to stick around to help her just in case she had any other problems. When it became apparent to Caine that it was a kidnapping , he started using his karate moves to try to help. When this failed, Caine was put down in a well, to keep him from causing any additional problems. When the women would not write a letter to her father for the ransom, she was then put down into the well with Caine. This women was prim and proper and didn’t see anything wrong with having servants.She felt that she had treated her servant fairly, by giving her old clothing and a birthday cake every year for her birthday. And by feeling that she that she should be served as a southern belle. Although she didn’t trust Caine at first since he was a chinaman, he was able to teach her while they were in the well together that it is just as good to serve and to be served.