Yes, it’s Super Bowl season again, and that means big, crazy, attention-getting ads! And some companies are releasing their Super Bowl ads early. This is just so they can get some extra attention from special interest group protests. It’s a well-worn strategy: make something controversial, get people to hate you and call you a racist, and sell, sell, sell!
Wait; what? Actually, I don’t think making people angry and being called a racist is part of the plan. But hey: if the shoe fits, huh? But in truth, the shoe doesn’t fit here, and it’s a pretty shameless shoe salesman who would try to fit this racism shoe on such an incorrectly-shaped foot. (Maybe it’s a group of Cinderella’s step-sisters?)
Now, why would I say such a thing? Well, it’s simple: I read this commercial’s scenario entirely differently, and not just as a joke like I do in many of my other blog posts about ads. No, for me this spot is the opposite from the Arab groups who find it offensive because they view the guy in the thobe with the camels as a maligned character who is never given a chance to win the race to the Coke bottle. To me, this Arab guy is the only one with enough sense to know that the big bottle of Coca-Cola is just a mirage, and that there is no point chasing it, because it’s not really there (at the end it is revealed to be a sign, but that’s even worse, because then everyone goes chasing after the Coke for another 50 miles, at which point they find that the place that sold it is long gone). All the other yahoos who go chasing after it will only make themselves hotter and thirstier and more dehydrated, so they’ll all die in the desert without the Arab guy’s help (which I’m sure he’ll provide, because he will gladly help those in need). And from this viewpoint, everyone else is a rube but him. But then again, I’m not looking for something to be offended by about Arabs, so I’m free to see it in such a way. (Oh, and I think the camels are just startled by all the idiots racing around them on horses, motorcycles, dune buggies and buses, so I think the Arab guy is just trying to calm them down, rather than it being a humiliating thing where he can’t get them chasing the mirage. But you know, The Sheik was a huge silent movie in the 1920s, and they might have been thinking of some silent-style slapstick comedy, so maybe that’s it too. {And this whole scenario is obviously just trying to recall cinema tropes, after all.})
Also, it could easily be read that the Arab guy is the only one who is not lured by the siren’s song of crass commercialization, which is sending everyone else on a fool’s errand after a wild goose chase in the desert. And with Coca-Cola being the #1 recognized brand in the world, and as such is the ultimate symbol of Western imperialism, perhaps this Arab guy is initially attracted because he’s thirsty, but he has the character to deny himself something that is alluring, but not necessarily good for him or his culture and lifestyle. You can also read it like that, if you are so inclined. And I actually think it’s a more obvious reading of it, from an academic perspective, frankly.
But if you really want to find things to get offended about, there are a couple I’ve noticed. For one thing, the big bus in the desert seem like it’s clearly a reference to the movie/Broadway show Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and yet there are women in it, rather than drag queens; is Coca-Cola not gay-friendly? And when the showgirls shoot their confetti cannon, they shoot it at the black cowboy; are they racists? Or are they trying to infer a “glitter bomb”? It just seems to me there are other things to find if you’re looking to be offended that are even more noticeable, if you really want to look for things to complain about. But I don’t, because I don’t think they’re intended as offensive at all, and I think too many of us are trying too hard to be offended by anything we possibly can these days. (If there
Here’s the Coke commercial: Decide for yourself:
