"Looks Can Be Deceiving" Black Tooth Paste (979 hits)
..."A little girl is crying cause she lost her balloon and it's stuck on a floodlight pole. An afro american guy decides to help her and climbs up this pole and gets the balloon for her. But her mother thinks he's a bad guy and just yells at him and {takes} girl to safety. Black guy comes home and he's already got tens of balloons like this in his room, he's pretty upset and goes to sleep. Appearance can be deceiving - Black herbal toothpaste"...
Sister Mwannesi, I do admit that the thought of "black tooth paste" does at first thought sound awful, but when one begins to examine what makes it awful then we can get to the "root cause" of why we believe what we believe. Perhaps it's similar to the study that one psychologist did with Black children examining and talking about their thoughts of White dolls vs. Black dolls. I too observed the way the guy "shimmied" up the pole. It reminded me of the way an earth worm shimmies along. That was really wild! At the very least, I think the ad will get people to think and perhaps try the tooth paste which is the goal of most adverts, eh. I wonder if it the paste tastes like black licorice. If so, I'd like to try it. (((Lol)))
I liked the ad. I actually think it is a daring step towards pointing out racism. The mother in the ad thinks the man is dangerous simply because he is black. She snatches her child and removes the child from "danger" without ever realizing the benefit of getting to know the person rather than just accepting the stereotype. He goes home, and realizes that yet another person has judged him based on his race and thus kept him from adding joy to their lives. The balloons represent the many chances he has had, and been refused, to add value to the lives of others simply because they couldn't look past his color. The toothpaste manufacturer is saying that their paste will improve the health and appearance of teeth better than "white" toothpastes but some may not purchase it because of it's color. The ad has potential success in that many people will recognize that the color IDENTIFIES this as a good paste, rather than defers from it. (Underlying suggestion that you ARE indeed rascist if you don't buy the past). However there is potential backfire in that A. it will be misunderstood by those of African descent and thus create an uproar that would spark a potential boycott or B. Those who ARE rascists will boycott it for being reverse descrimination about whites and other races for being less than blacks. It's something I intend to watch in the future.
Wednesday, July 29th 2009 at 11:36AM
Juanita Johnson
My first impression was that the young man was befriending the little girl, because he helped her retrieve her balloon. The mother seemed angry because she felt the young man was a stranger approaching her child. When the young man came home he added the ballons to his collection but I noticed too the ballons were in many colors. The thinking exercised in the commercial is remarkable....Used in great way to decribe that racism exists. I found a positive side though, that the color black is good, but so often misunderstood. Thus, they interated that black toothpaste is also good for your teeth. Thought provoking, and also emotionally touching. I felt the advertisers were successful in making a strong point when it came to their product. I could go on and and on...but I think that I was overall impressed with the product and I would probably buy and use it. Good work Jen!
Wednesday, July 29th 2009 at 8:46PM
MIISRAEL Bride
..."The mother in the ad thinks the man is dangerous simply because he is black"...
Sister Juanita, I'm so glad that you saw this immediately. I noticed that right away & it just took me back a bit to those "elevator" situations when Black men find themselves on elevators with people who think that they want to snatch their purses. I don't know if I could endure that type of psychological abuse which makes me want to continue to be aware of these behaviors because I'm raising the sweetest little Black boy that you'll ever want to meet.
..."The mother seemed angry because she felt the young man was a stranger approaching her child"...
Sister Miisrael, You always seem to see other side of the coin. I suppose I would as a mother irrespective of the color of the person wouldn't be too happy with someone approaching my child; however, I wouldn't leave my child unattended like the mother did in the video. I imagine she (the mother) may have went back to the balloon stand to buy her little daughter another balloon although I didn't see it in her hand when she came over to snatch up her kid from the "big bad Black stranger guy". I suppose she probably let the balloon go due to her wanting to rescue her little girl. Thanks for this alternative view Ms. Miisrael.
Thursday, July 30th 2009 at 2:58PM
Jen Fad
...oh you can see my imagination at work with my addition to the scenario... (((Lol)))
Thursday, July 30th 2009 at 11:13PM
Jen Fad
