Everything's OKKK in a Luxor.
(click ad) Previously, we've seen Ku Klux Klan Kreative help sell KKKlay-doh. Now, via McCann Lowe in Belgium, hot tubs. Maybe this was the missing element from Obama's beer garden race summit? Nice big product shot, so client's happy. Nice 'fro. There's also a less provocative Bobby/Punk execution. related: a roundup of recent Hitlertising.
posted by copyranter @ 10:50 AM
14 Comments:
Here's an additional setup I'm suggesting to the Creative gang at Lowe, Brussels, Belgium.
My version would have FOX News bloviator Bill O'Reilly holding teasingly a 'falafel' while his MSNBC rival Keith Olbermann gently brandishes a 'loofah'.
This perverse ad got me thinking.
The Ku Klux Klan, (the first Klan was founded in 1865 by Tennessee veterans of the Confederate Army and then spread throughout the South) with their record of using terrorism, violence and lynching to murder and oppress African Americans, Jews and other minorities and to intimidate and oppose labor unions and Roman Catholics ????????? why are they identified mainly by their iconic white costumes consisting of robes and conical hats, the exact of what Catholic 'PENITENTS' have worn for centuries and continue to wear especially during Easter week processions be it in Spain, Italy, etc.
SEE: Confraternity of penitents
http://www.answers.com/topic/confraternity-of-penitents
Does anyone have a legitimate answer other than "To pose as ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers, to intimidate African-Americans"
@Anonymous, where's your sense of humor? I think it's bold but cute.
And re: the legitimate answer... the penitents and their charming costumes were around during the time of Catholic inquisitions and related processions. So in terms of the history and record of their umm procedures - an old Spanish Jew, for example, might not be too comfy with the sight of a white-hooded enthusiast. Otherwise, I don't know... Both are faith-based, exclusive, and closely tied to European ideals? That's all I got.
I think the ad's great - obvs better for Europe than US. Bold and certainly memorable for making me gasp/laugh out loud. Well played, McCann!
Dear Allika,
Anon 4:10 PM responding.
I see from your profile that you're only 23, from California to boot, so I won't be too hard on you.
Putting the Inquisition aside, from what I've read, these were some of the obligations attributed to the penitents: to care for the sick, bury the dead, provide medical service for those unable to afford it and give dowries to poor girls, to assist and console criminals condemned to death, accompany them to the gallows, and provide for them religious services and Christian burial, NOWHERE did the list include: cross burning, lynching, assault, murder and intimidation.
I would suggest that you remove at once those tight plastic boots you seem to favor (bad for the circulation you know), lay off the whiskey, chocolates, caviar and cigarettes, come out of your self-induced deviant stupor and GET SERIOUS!!!
It's clear McCann Lowe crossed the line, just as in my opinion Roseanne Barr did recently in her photoshoot for Heeb magazine dressed as Hitler taking burnt gingerbread 'Jew Cookies' out of the oven.
NOT BOLD...NOT CUTE...
BUT MENTALLY CHALLENGED!
Dear Anon,
WHY SO SERIOUS?
I'll admit that I was out of line with my little musings on history. I'm sure the average 16 year old knows more about European or religious history than I do. I was an English major - I got my BA by making shit up and analyzing shit that didn't happen. So I took a stab at something I knew nothing about - OOPS! I'm truly sorry if I offended. However, there is some legitimate answer behind it all that can't be denied: the Klan attempts to hold onto some holy ideals, and couches its practices in some notion of righteousness. The white hoods and robes also conveniently help hide their identities to avoid social/legal consequences for their aggressively righteous nighttime activities.
I will NOT apologize for my reaction to the ad, you old grump. And I will not "GET SERIOUS". Law school is serious enough for me, thankyouverymuch, and I do just fine there. Just because my opinion is different from yours and I know shit about history, you don't get to dismiss it just like that.
I know plenty about the south, I know plenty about being black in America, about persecution, pain, and healing. I've been black in the South, I've been black in Califoria, I've been black at an ivy league university, and I've been black in Europe. I've also been black at several bars wearing high heels and drinking whiskey. Jealous?
Yes I'm 23, and yes I do enjoy various mild forms of deviance, and I don't see how that makes my opinion or experience any less valuable than yours.
I hiked to the top of Stone Mountain in Atlanta with my family earlier this summer (Confederate memorial turned headquarters for KKK revival) and that got me thinking (yes, I think!) about what happens to things like fear and pain during the healing process. Some people theorize about the close and self-consciously twisted link to pleasure in such processes - as my brother and I agreed while sharing inappropriate jokes with other hikers on our way to the top.
SOMETIMES, you have to laugh at yourself (you should try it) and sometimes it's okay, after a certain point, to laugh the pain away. Ask any multi-millionaire black comedian.
This ad would be passionately rejected in the US and probably a handful of other countries, I think, and I'm not disagreeing that it's insensitive. I'm not saying that I think an ad like this SHOULD be able to run in the US. But the image is funny to me, and the boldness of their irony is CUTE (yes, cute) to me. And if I had the money, I'd buy me a Luxor. So, once again, I say: Well played, McCann!
Anon, I suggest that you jump off your high horse, have a beer, and think about getting some California sun yourself.
xoxo
Allika
P.S. According to some "Catholic Encyclopedia" online, in 1264 in Rome, St. Bonaventure who was at that time "the Inquisitor General of the Holy Office" proscribed the rules and white habit of the Archconfraternity of the Whateverwho White Penitents.
I have no idea how accurate this shit is, and I won't pretend that my research techniques (read: google search) are anywhere near sophisticated, but it looks like there's no "Inquisition Aside" when you're evaluating the history of Catholicism, dear Anon.
Why can't you just accept that a legitimate response might have come from a 23 year-old Californian hussy? I'm gonna go ahead and pull the ageism / sexism / havent-been-laid-in-a-while-ism card.
Dear Allika,
Anon 4:10 PM responds yet again.
While reading your initial response, I took no offence and had no problem with your perceived little musings on history, my beef was and continues to be with your steadfast support for these morally bankrupt AD people and you finding humour for their use of a hateful historical figure and double the beef now that I know you are a Black American.
There is no one more self-deprecating than this old grump and I have a healthy sense of humour, why just reading about your 'I've been black in the South,...in California,...in an ivy league university,...in Europe,...at several bars wearing high heels and drinking whiskey,........reminded me of this ditty:
Been to Georgia and California
And anywhere I could run
I've been to paradise
Never been to me
Been to Nice and the Isle of Greece
While I sipped champagne on a yacht
I've been to paradise
Never been to me
Complete Charlene lyrics here:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.hart/lyricsc/charlene.html
I don't know about laughing one's pain away, I detect rage along with seriously funny insights in the following:
"Hey, I love black people, but I hate niggas. I love black people but I hate niggas, I wish they let me join the Ku Klux Klan."
- Chris Rock, talking about racism in 1996.
I love it. Here's a black president who hit the ground running. He's appointed a Jewish chief of staff. You just know the Ku Klux Klan is having a big meeting right now.
- Mario Joyner
Must see video of Erica Ash as Cerise Muhammad, airhead daughter of a slain civil rights leader on MAD TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX4-_ehs_e8
Here's more on the 'Origins of the Ku Klux Klan Costume':
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ku_Klux_Klan_regalia_and_insignia
In conclusion I hope you do well at Law school and that 'never been to me' never becomes your theme song. My suggestion is that you start by eliminating from your blog the moniker 'coquette' (a woman who endeavors without sincere affection to gain the attention and admiration of men) and to stop smudging your face while highlighting your décolletage.
Dear Anon,
I'm flattered that you seem to have put so much time into your response, though a little disappointed to find it so lacking in substance and logic.
travels and enjoys life --> has no self awareness?
laughs at ridiculous image --> is tragically bad at being African American?
Lawd ha' mercy, I'd hate to live in your world - it must be a painfully self-righteous dreadfully joyless one. Just because I laugh, doesn't mean I feel no rage - but there's a time and a place for everything. Laughing at an image like this does not mean forgetting or forgiving a legacy of pain, violence, and dehumanization, you weirdo.
What would be a more appropriate reaction for an African American, oh Wise Anonymous One? Shall I write an angry letter? Fume over my laptop awhile, gather some fellow Seriously Self Aware African Americans, then call up Al Sharpton and tell him we've found something else for him to bitch about? Congratulate myself for being disgusted by this non-serious use of a klansman's image, then attack the character of anyone who doesn't share in my disgust?
People are diverse and multidimensional, dear Anon. If you can't take the time away from your stubborn self-righteousness to try and understand the position of an Other, rather than spending so much energy attacking them and aggressively trying to establish your moral superiority, best to just move on. (Pretty sure that's a lesson that repeats itself throughout history as well.)
Keep staring at my marvelous décolletage if it makes you feel like the bigger person. In my opinion, life is too short to get all worked up over and try to psychoanalyze every little instance of perceived ignorance out there. At the end of the day, you can continue to hold onto/double/do whatever you want with your "beef"; I'll still be out there, taking things lightly, not bowing to the superiority of your wisdom, outliving you, etc!
In conclusion, I'll repeat my suggestion that you have a drink, get off your high horse and try to level with someone for a change; learn to trip the light fantastic and groove on.
Dear Allika,
Anon 11:52 PM responds for the last time.
AGAIN WITH THE DRINKS!!!
This will be my last post, I'm surprised Copyranter has been so gracious this far to allow it, after all it's not a chat-room NOR the Harvard Law Review...that's where I suggest you go to for your type of logic and substance.
I have made my case and I stand by it.
As far as travel and self discovery is concerned, don't go overboard on its merits, why I remember reading this in National Geographic of all places: 'remember, wherever you go...there you are.'
The dilemma I've been having with you throughout these exchanges and maybe that's why I have been very critical and judgmental is the fact that I can't reconcile the duality that is Allika, the person I imagine you to be based on this blog's writings, (that of an intelligent, insightful young woman, who is assertive, open and honest enough to admit that her BA in English was had by making shit up and analyzing shit that didn't happen) and then there is the other, the one I see in your blog's dishonest retouched photos and others with various body parts, (that of a flirty 'slutty bunny', your family nickname, parading in 'bourgeois hooker garb' your words, while consuming copious quantities of Prosecco and other libations.)
The label of 'self-righteous prick' I've heard before and I wear it as a badge of honour as I struggle daily in my dreadfully dark and joyless world.
Are you ready now for my 'coup de grâce'.......
here it comes...
"What an outright 'chatte' / 'die Fotze' / 'fica' you are to assume that."
(that's 'cunt' in French, German and Italian)
Adieu, Auf wiedersehen, CIAO!!!
what? Did you two say something?
cat fight cat fight! we want more!! :)
HE CALLED ME A CUNT! BUAHAHAHAHAHA!
a year and a name-change later, i'm still not entirely certain, but i think that means i won.
@KBXxx - rrawr! always happy to entertain :)
@copyranter- ... sorry/thanks for the tolerance... love your blog!
célimène: please, no, it was (is?) my blog's pleasure to host the discussion.
You guys should get a hot tub and work, it, out.
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