Saw this ad today on the Steve Kornacki teevee programme, and it reminded us of last summer's kerfuffle over that Cheerios ad with another multiracial family. This one for Swiffer features Zack and Ari Rukavina, their adorable kids, and a big box o' cleaning products. And just to make it what AdWeek calls the "most inclusive ad ever," Zack Rukavina has only one hand, having lost his left forearm to cancer. And we have to agree with Adweek's assessment: the ad
pulls so many progressive levers at once that it risks feeling contrived or opportunistic, but ultimately ends up coming across as real enough to actually warrant a rare bit of respite from cynicism
Also, there's the not-insignificant detail that Zack does housework, which we all know is supposed to be like pr0n for the ladieez.
Needless to say, the Racisctsphere is Not Pleased. "The White Voice" says the ad "Promotes White Genocide" somehow, possibly because this mixed-race family keeps a cleaner house than a lot of Aryans do. Kind of missing the bit where Zack brags that he's better at cleaning up than Afi, the blog asks, "Are they trying to portray White men as weak, useless and disabled?" Yep, that's some grade-A White Nationalist analysis there.
Over at Stormfront, there's the usual whining about how you just don't see enough white people in ads anymore, a gripe that "Rukavina" is an honorable Croation name that has been sullied by this race traitor, and of course a call to flood the YouTube comments with White Nationalist messages, which obviously worked, since the ad's YouTube comments have now been disabled. Still more worries about the "message" of the ad, too:
This is especially insulting to our disabled white brethren. Are they saying if you lose a limb the best you can do is an unattractive black woman?
Yes, kids, that's a neo-Nazi worrying about disabled people. Someone's not paying attention, we think.
And yes, of course, all good racists will now be boycotting Swiffer, which means that not only will their shacks be unheated, they will be dusty.
On the other hand, apart from posting enough racist idiocy to get the YouTube comments disabled, the "White Nationalist Community" hasn't really managed to get much attention for their poutrage over this ad, unlike the widesperead coverage of that Cheerios ad, so we can maybe call this progress? (Yes, we know, we gave them attention. We feel just terrible about that.)
We aren't sure that we're ready to overreact and "buy a thousand Swiffers" -- especially considering the distinct lack of non-carpeted floors in our crappy bachelor apartment -- but we suppose we're at least willing to say that this ad makes up for thatincredibly stoopid "Rosie The Riveter" ad that Swiffer whiffed last year. Looks like even corporate behemoths can learn a thing or two, maybe.
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Funny how the white supremacists are, without exception, very, very far from being "superior" in any way.
What these inbred mouth-breathers call "white genocide" is real enough -- in the long run -- but its better-known moniker is "hybrid vigor."
Then he'd have died on a bench outside the hospital, just like God intended.