Chance the Rapper Blasts Heineken For 'Terribly Racist' 'Sometimes, Lighter is Better' Ad
Heineken apologized for an ad it promoting Heineken Light beer after Chance the Rapper called out the adult beverage brand on Sunday for being racist.
The ad, which features the tagline “Sometimes, lighter is better” sees a bartender at a rooftop venue sliding a Heineken Light down the bar to a fair-skinned woman. But as the beer makes its journey, it passes a number of other partygoers—the majority of whom are darker skinned black people.
Chance, along with several other Twitter users, were offended by the commercial. And the Chicago native suggested Heineken may have purposefully promoted colorism in the commercial simply for the sake of getting attention.
“I think some companies are purposely putting out noticeably racists ads so they can get more views,” he wrote. “And that shit racist/bogus so I guess I shouldn’t help by posting about it. But I gotta just say tho. The 'sometimes lighter is better' Hienekin [sic] commercial is terribly racist omg.”
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The 24-year-old noted he wasn’t trying to convince his 7.34 million Twitter followers to protest the Dutch brewing company. Rather, he simply wanted to point out how common subliminally racist messages are becoming in advertisements.
“I’m not saying boucott [sic] them or go off I’m just noticing how often it happens and I think they baiting consumers and tweeters and freelancers and shit," he wrote. "Like I didn’t wanna tweet about it so bad but it’s like how can u not?”
In a statement emailed to Newsweek Monday, Heineken acknowledged that it “missed the mark” with the seemingly divisive advertisement.
“For decades, Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows there’s more that unites us than divides us,” the statement read. “While we feel the ad is referencing our Heineken Light beer—we missed the mark, are taking the feedback to heart and will use this to influence future campaigns.”
In August 2017, Heineken received high praise for a “social experiment” advertisement. In the ad, people from opposing political parties and ethnicities were brought together to safely discuss their differing points of view after working together to build a piece of furniture.
But anyone who follows Chance shouldn't be surprised he took Heineken to task over its latest ad. This isn’t the first time has taken to Twitter to voice his concerns regarding concealed racism.
In December, the Coloring Book rapper sparked a social media debate when he blasted Netflix original movie Bright (starring Will Smith) for “allegorical racism.”
“I found the way they tried to illustrate America's racism through the mythical creatures to be a little shallow. #Brightmovie,” he wrote, adding, “I always feel a lil cheated when I see allegorical racism in movies cause that racism usually stems from human emotion or tolerance but not by law or systems the way it is in real life. The characters in #Bright live in a timeline where racism is gone…cause we hate ork now.”