The UK Advertising Standards Agency has told Cadbury Schweppes to pull adverts for its Trident chewing gum, having received 519 complaints that the commercials played on Caribbean stereotypes.
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Two TV commercials and one cinema ad featured a black man shouting the tagline “mastication for the nation” in a Caribbean accent, while a third television advert featured a white woman and a fourth a white man speaking in Caribbean accents.
A significant minority of viewers found the adverts to be deeply offensive, the UK regulator said. While the ASA acknowledged the commercials did not incite racial intolerance or discrimination, it added: “the stereotype depicted in the ads had, unintentionally, caused deep offence to a significant minority of viewers and that many of those who complained to us were concerned that the negative stereotype would be perpetuated.”
Cadbury, who said the campaign had already finished, added that it did not mean to cause offence with the campaign.
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By GlobalData
