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[Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>]

Firm drops ads with chimp in dreadlocks

06/15/2005
The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200506150138.html

In response to cries of racism, cosmetics maker Mandom Corp. has pulled 
TV and magazine advertisements featuring a chimpanzee in dreadlocks and 
Rastafarian clothing imitating movements of black actors.

In the commercial, several black actors use a cleaning product to wipe 
sweat from their faces.

The chimpanzee, dressed in a costume of gold, red and green, imitates 
their movements.

"We thought it would create a good atmosphere to have a chimpanzee 
among friends having fun in a party," said a company spokesman. "We 
never intended it to be prejudiced, but we concluded that the ad would 
be taboo based on an international point of view."

The Community, an Osaka-based human rights group, informed Mandom in a 
letter that the commercial was "an extremely insensitive and tasteless 
attempt at humor."

"Visually equating black men as `apes' or `monkeys' is a particularly 
egregious racial slur," the letter said.

As for the chimpanzee's costume, the group said: "Dreadlocks in the 
colors of red, gold, and green are Rastafarian religious symbols. The 
dressing up of a chimpanzee in such garb would be akin to dressing it 
up as a Buddhist monk or a Shinto priest."

The commercial had been broadcast since March.(IHT/Asahi: June 15,2005)