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London-based tombola.co.uk was forced to remove its television advertising after it was deemed as racist by Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority. The ban on the advertisement was issued after the agency received complaints from two people.
The commercial featured two men: a Caucasian man wearing tuxedo and a man of African descent wearing a floral shirt. They were both sitting on a beach. The black man was playing a ukulele and was singing what the white man was saying: “If you sign up this to tombola.co.uk... We will match your first deposit up to 20 pounds... Thank you Tito... Ola Tombola...”
According to the complaint, the commercial depicted negative racial stereotyping. The ASA also ruled that the television AD violated Rules 6.1 and 6.6 (Harmful or negative stereotypes) of the CAP TV Advertising Standards.
The commercial was shown during primetime slots during its run. Tombola has issued a statement saying that it will not use the ad again.
The company that reviewed the commercial before it went into broadcast, Clearcast, said that it did not see the ad as promoting racial stereotype. It did not even expect that it was going to be viewed that way it was.
In a ruling by ASA, it has already issued a warning to Tombola not to use the ad again and that no future ad is to be made that would feature negative racial stereotyping.
This Article Was Written By Ferdinand Legaspi.
March 26, 2010
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