March 29, 2024

G.M. and Mountain Dew Pull Ads After Criticism for Racial Insensitivity

The General Motors ad was a promotion for the Chevrolet Trax, a small sport utility vehicle that is sold in countries including Canada, where the ad made its debut on television on March 4. The ad is set in the 1930s and features a modern remix of a song from that era that included references to Chinese people using phrases like “ching ching, chop-suey.”

Advertising Standards Canada questioned General Motors about the ad, prompting the company to change the ad by removing the lyrics from the song while keeping the melody.

Even so, as word of the offensive lyrics spread within the company, G.M. decided to withdraw the ad altogether from Canadian television and on Web sites in Europe, where the vehicle is also sold. The vehicle is not sold or advertised in the United States.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, G.M. apologized for the ad and said, “We are conducting a full review of our advertising approval process to ensure this does not happen again in the future.”

The ad was created by Commonwealth, Chevrolet’s global advertising agency since 2012 and a part of the McCann Worldgroup of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

The second ad withdrawn on Wednesday promoted Mountain Dew, part of the PepsiCo Americas Beverages division of PepsiCo. The ad featured a battered waitress, bandaged and on crutches, trying to identify the person who had hurt her when she ran out of Mountain Dew; the lineup includes African-American men with names like LBoy, Tiny and Beyonte — and a goat.

The waitress, who is white, is stricken with fear as she looks at the men and the goat. A voice-over for the animal says in a menacing tone: “It’s me. You should’ve gave me some more.”

“I don’t think I can do this,” the woman says, visibly frightened. Toward the end, the goat threatens her to “keep your mouth shut.” The woman begins to yell repeatedly, “I can’t do this,” followed by a sequence of shrill “noes” as she hops out of the room. The officer then takes a sip of the beverage.

The ad was created by Tyler Okonma, known as Tyler, the Creator, a hip-hop producer and rap artist. In a statement released Wednesday morning, Mountain Dew apologized for the ad and said it had been removed “from all Mountain Dew channels and Tyler is removing it from his channels as well.” News of the company’s decision was first reported by Adweek.

Mountain Dew has also come under pressure because of its relationship with another rapper, Lil’ Wayne. The company has an endorsement deal with Wayne, who has been criticized over vulgar lyrics that refer to Emmett Till, the African-American teenager whose 1955 murder helped foment the civil rights movement.

On Wednesday, the rapper issued an apology to Mr. Till’s family, adding, “I will not use or reference Emmett Till or the Till family in my music, especially in an inappropriate manner.”

Mountain Dew is the latest brand to deal with controversial hip-hop lyrics. In April, Reebok dropped the rapper Rick Ross after he performed lyrics on the Rocko song “U.O.E.N.O” that referred to drugging a woman and having sex with her.

In March, another auto company, Ford Motor, apologized for an online advertisement in India that featured three bound and gagged women in the rear of a vehicle driven by an actor in the role of Silvio Berlusconi.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/business/media/gm-and-mountain-dew-pull-ads-after-criticism-for-racial-insensitivity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Fed’s 3-Year Rescue Plan Falling Short of Promise

That peak now looks like a long plateau. The Fed still is expected to announce Wednesday that it will halt the expansion of its aid programs at the end of June, as scheduled, when it completes the purchase of $600 billion in Treasury securities. But growth is sputtering, and economists now expect that the Fed will leave its $2 trillion of bandages, props and crutches untouched until next year.

The pace of economic expansion has repeatedly fallen short of the Fed’s predictions, and the central bank is expected to lower its eyes once again when its releases a new forecast after a two-day meeting of its policy board, the Federal Open Market Committee.

Economic forecasters, many of whom also thought 2011 would be a more prosperous year, say that they underestimated the impact of the Japanese earthquake on the production of cars and other goods. They also point to a lack of confidence, an elusive concept that basically defines the willingness of consumers and businesses to spend more money than is justified by current circumstances.

“The most important thing I missed is how fragile confidence is. When anything goes off-script, the impact is magnified by this very fragile psyche,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed’s chairman, said this month in Atlanta that the recovery was continuing at a “moderate pace, albeit at a rate that is both uneven across sectors and frustratingly slow from the perspective of millions of unemployed and underemployed workers.”

Mr. Bernanke will again answer questions from reporters Wednesday afternoon, part of a new practice the Fed has initiated to explain its policies and defend its judgments.

Since 2008 the central bank has taken a series of unprecedented steps to arrest the financial crisis and then to restore growth. It is holding short-term interest rates near zero, and has tried to reduce long-term rates by purchasing huge quantities of mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries. The final installment of those purchases is scheduled to take place next week.

Economists do not expect the event to ripple through the economy. The prevailing view is that the impact of the purchases was felt mostly at the time they were announced, based on the total amount the Fed promised to spend, and that markets have not responded to the daily transactions in which the Fed bought those Treasury securities from financial companies.

“Nothing will change on July 1,” said James O’Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global. “Monetary policy will not be that different” because the Fed still will hold the Treasuries on its balance sheet.

Moreover, a number of studies have concluded that the Fed’s efforts have had only a modest impact on the economy. Stock prices have climbed. Corporations have rarely been able to borrow money more cheaply. Mortgage loans have seldom been available at such low interest rates. But companies are hiring few new workers, and people are buying few new homes. Almost 25 million Americans cannot find full-time work, a number that is rising again after declining modestly over the last year.

When the economy faltered last summer, the Fed announced a giant stimulus program. This year, the leaders of the central bank have shown little appetite for another intervention.

Mr. Bernanke and other Fed officials have sought to discourage speculation in recent weeks, arguing that monetary policy cannot address the nation’s fundamental problems, including the collapsed housing market, the federal deficit and trade imbalances with developing nations.

The political backlash against the current round of asset purchases is one reason for the Fed’s timidity. Some at the central bank also see evidence of diminishing returns from additional spending. And the Fed has made clear that it its primary focus is on the pace of inflation, in part because the central bank regards slow, steady price increases as a prerequisite for sustainable job creation.

Last year prices were falling; this year, prices are increasing, and the Fed is frozen as a consequence as it searches for any indication that inflation will exceed its 2 percent speed limit.

“We’re a long way from where we were last summer,” Mr. O’Sullivan said.

The Fed also is waiting to see what Washington will do about its own financial problems. A failure to raise the debt ceiling, the maximum amount the government can borrow, could precipitate a financial crisis. Mr. Bernanke has said that short-term spending cuts could weaken the economy, while a long-term plan to reduce spending could increase growth.

“They won’t rule out anything because they know a lot depends on what the fiscal policy makers do, and that is inherently unpredictable,” Mr. Zandi said.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=73ab58a0809c7a798f0dc50554c2c2dd