Chocolate Surprise: Backlash Forces Duncan Hines to Pull "Racist" Cupcake Ad
Could Duncan Hines have avoided being accused of racism if it had used a different name for its "Hip-Hop Cupcakes" ad (video below)? The ad shows a line of cupcakes that start singing after Hines' Amazing Glaze chocolate syrup is poured on them. It's not such a bad concept, and the singing is appropriately dippy, but once you know that Hines thinks this is "hip-hop" the cakes just look like they're wearing minstrel-style blackface.
Without the hip-hop concept, it might just have been an ad about how happy cupcakes are to be covered in chocolate. I say "might," because many viewers also thought the cakes' lips and eyes were a little too Song of the South for comfort. (Not everyone sees a racial element in the ad. Commenters at Fox Nation think this it's all a liberal anti-cupcake conspiracy; Adfreak thinks the allegations are "ridiculous.")
Hines' U-turn is another reminder of the power that blogs have in shaping consumer reaction to companies' marketing efforts. Hines pulled the ad after just a handful of sites complained. It also underscores how frequently brand managers fall prey to internal corporate group-think, and fail to research whether their efforts will be taken the wrong way once released to the public.
The original spot garnered 19,000 views on YouTube since it appeared in late November. A pirated version of the ad has been seen by 15,000 people in the last two days. By comparison, one of Hines' other ads in the campaign has been seen by only 34,000 in the last week. So Hines seems set to get a disproportionate amount of attention for its efforts.
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