Heineken ‘Lighter Is Better’ Ad Slammed As Racist By Chance The Rapper, But Some Disagree
Chance the Rapper took to Twitter on Sunday, March 25, to bring attention to the above commercial from Heineken, which declares, “Lighter is better.” As reported by the Daily Mail, the Heineken ad begins with a woman who is racially ambiguous and fair-skinned bemoaning her glass of white wine. A male bartender who appears to be Latin notices her dilemma, so he quickly opens a bottle of Heineken Light beer and slides it across a long bar over to the woman.
The problem comes into play, according to Chance, when the Heineken Light beer passes several people of color with dark skin in order to find its target and declare that lighter is better when it reaches the woman. Whereas some social media users claim that the Heineken ad was simply focusing on the lightness of fewer calories contained in the light beer, others are noting the symbolism of the beer sliding past darker-skinned people to reach a “lighter” target.
As seen on the Chance The Rapper Twitter account, the artist accused the company of using the racial symbolism and implications on purpose. Chance explained that he wasn’t urging people to boycott Heineken. He just couldn’t resist the urge to tweet about his observations. Heineken ended up apologizing for the ad, saying they “missed the mark.”
Critics are slamming this 'racist' Heineken beer ad that declares 'lighter is better' https://t.co/3sw4RQOJxj pic.twitter.com/ErViwsPVXX
— Insider Business (@BusinessInsider) March 26, 2018
Some folks accuse Chance of “reaching,” but others call it subliminal racism because the light beer slid past dark-skinned black people and landed in the hands of a non-black person before declaring “lighter is better.” Others admit that they are not outraged and that they don’t see anything wrong with the ad.
The Heineken beer ad is being viewed within the context of imagery and symbolism when it comes to issues of colorism and what is being called a subtle form of racism. Detractors claim that if Heineken had not used any people of color in the commercial, they may have heard cries of a lack of diversity. Other viewers point to the ad showing the beer sliding past black people (and not sliding past people of other races in the prominent foreground) as a notion that was a little too obvious.
