Posted on March 27, 2018

Heineken Pulls ‘Terribly Racist’ Ad After Social Media Backlash

Victor Morton, Washington Times, March 26, 2018

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Heineken experienced a social-media backlash that accused an ad for its light beer as being racist because it said “lighter is better” and the complexions of the people in the clip.

In the clip, a bartender slides a Heineken Light to a woman standing some distance away. Some users noted that the bartender and the woman are both fair-complexioned while two of the three people the bottle passes are black and the other dark-skinned. The slogan “sometimes lighter is better” appears on the screen.

Watch this Heineken commercial where a fair-skinned bartender slides a beer past 3 dark-skinned Black folks (2 women 1 man) to a racially ambiguous fair-skinned woman, and when the drink reaches its desired destination, the words “sometimes lighter is better” pops up on the screen.

In 24 hours, the rapper’s post had been retweeted 2,700 times and received more than 14,000 likes and, in a sign it was largely agreed with, didn’t even get 350 replies.

Heineken quickly knuckled under.

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The Dutch beer brand didn’t take into account the feedback from people incredulous at the criticism.

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