Another article about Kraft's offensive Milkbite advertising campaign

[MrScorpio]

Kraft's Biracial Milkbite Stirs Controversy

"Who are you? What am I? Maybe you're nothing ... I'm not ... I'm valuable."

Pretty heavy introspection and melodrama are at the top of a 30 second spot pushing Kraft's latest snack venture-the Milkbite. According to their website, the Milkbite "combines real milk with whole grain granola and other tasty and nutritious ingredients, providing the same calcium as an 8 oz glass of milk." Though it sounds delicious, controversy has been brewing around the bar's ad campaign, which chronicles the depressed life of an anthropomorphic milkbite named Mel. In the campaign, Mel is depicted as the child of Milk and Granola and having been born of such diversity, he is clearly confused, trying to figure out who he is and unsure of where he belongs. "Are you milk, are you granola?" Mel asks himself.

The campaign harkens the age-old tragic mulatto stereotype which has its roots in 19th century abolitionist literature. This archetype has endured through generation after generation of western pop culture. Bernardo Guimaraes' "Isaura," Fanny Hurst's "Peola," Phillip Roth's "Coleman Silk," and now Kraft's "Mel" all remind us of how, in much of our art, biracial children are almost always depicted as perpetually melancholy, ignored, confused, and ostracized by the communities for which they believe they should belong. The problem with this sort of homogeneous characterization has always been that it oversimplifies the complexities of what it means to be biracial by painting the characters biraciality as a constant source of stress and anxiety. That in turn reinforces the notion that miscegenation, and the children born of it, are inherently unhealthy.

I don't believe this was the intention of Kraft. I don't believe they sought to tap into this stereotype and wouldn't be surprised if they've never even heard of the tragic mulatto. Still, it's hard not to look shamefully at the company when in one of their ads the brown offspring of white milk and brown granola is telling his parents "You didn't think, did you? You didn't think what life was going to be like for me. For your son." And in another spot, his biraciality is compelling him to irrationally personalize the hardships of a fictional character he and his friends are discussing at book club. "He spent 30 years in a Siberian Prison!" the snacking white guy says. "Right and I was born in this prison," Mel retorts.

And as if that wasn't insensitive enough, as if the lines of race, commerce, and advertising weren't being blurred enough, the worst ad of them all depicts Mel on a blind date with a white woman. "I just have a question ... Your profile says you're milk?" she asks, interrupting Mel. "Uh huh, yup," he responds. "You just look like ... granola," she says confused. As Mel leaves, she calls after him "Please don't go, I'm ... I'm ... I'm kinda into it." Into what we have to wonder? What exactly are we talking about here?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jermaine-spradley/krafts-biracial-milkbite-_b_1581506.html

[mattvermont]

1. or maybe it is a more innocent

play on the latest muppet movie...Am I a man or a muppet...just askin'

[MrScorpio]

2. This is why understanding different cultural perspectives is important

For one, there is no apparent Muppet tie-in to confirm your hypothesis.

Second, by reading the article itself, one would come to understand that the campaign uses the same central thematic device that was also employed throughout much of American literature, known as the "Tragic Mulatto".

Now one can only come to the conclusion that the creators of this campaign and those who green-lit were never even aware of what they were doing in the first place. Basically, because of lack of cultural awareness on their part, they stumbled into the curious arena of White Privilege.

I wrote a comment about this to the article:

I expect most of the people who reject the validity of this argument to be white. It's only normal, of course. First, there's no actual necessity in our society for white people to achieve all the relevant frames of reference outside of their own.

If you don't need to know, why bother, right?

And second, as white people are considered the socially, culturally and morally defaulted status in this country, they are imbued with a privilege which helps them maintain an inability to acknowledge outside perspectives as realistic.

Basically, white privilege's key ingredient is the ability of those who have it to claim the right to deny that it actually exists.

This article represents a direct challenge to this norm. You may or may not recognize that.

However, the writer is not accusing Kraft of actively furthering white privilege, but merely playing by the rules of privilege through their own ignorance. But frankly, they've been made aware of this and yet have failed to end the patently ignorant and offensive campaign.

But if Kraft is actually sincere about not being offensive, then it wouldn't be a problem for the company to do something else, right?

Those who maintain that the writer's premise is invalid, even in light of the actual evidence presented and the logical argument of his perspective, only do so ostensibly, to deny the validity of ANY perspectives other than their own.

This is why we can't have nice things in this country.

Black people in this country are expected to know white cultural dynamics in this country better than white people themselves… But the opposite is never even considered necessary.

Some people need to buy a clue.

[Number23]

3. And for those of you who are somehow unfamiliar with "Am I a man or a muppet?"

Behold...

I loved The Muppets as a kid but haven't seen a Muppets movie in a lifetime. Only saw The Muppet movie last year because the movie my daughter and I went to see was sold out.

Let's just say, calling this movie a modern day classic isn't too far off. It is one of the cutest, cleverest, sweetest movies ever and my entire family and I love it.