Chance The Rapper Labels Heineken Ad “Terribly Racist”

No Chance

March 27th, 2018 – Hip hop superstar, Chance the Rapper, known for his infectious tracks and socially conscious lyrics has taken issue with a recent advert from beer maker, Heineken. The ad, which was shown in the US, Australian and New Zealand markets depicts a bartender sliding a bottle of beer down the bar past several dark-skinned actors before stopping in front of a fair-skinned woman ending with the slogan “Sometimes Lighter is Better.”

The Chicago-based rapper called the ad racist on his Twitter page, though with some reluctance, as he mused the ad could have been custom made for the click-baity, impressions-obsessed advertising of the social media age.

“I think some companies are purposely putting out racist ads so they can get more views. Im not saying boucott [sic] them or go off im just noticing how often it happens and I think they baiting consumers.”

I found that joint ??https://t.co/r4cgSLE8Uz

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) March 26, 2018

Chance had plenty of online support for his critique with Twitter users echoing his condemnation of the commercial’s racially problematic optics.

I don’t understand how people are saying that Chance is reaching. Like this is subliminal racism. It only passed dark skinned black people and stopped at a white passing woman? With the slogan “sometimes lighter is better?” lol y’all so dense sometimes

— Ororo Munroe (@ttttara21) March 26, 2018

Just saw this ad and immediately recognized the racialized message without having seen any tweets about it previously. I do not think this was a coincidental mistake. It comes across as very intentional. @Heineken NO!

— shannonbieger (@shannonbieger) March 26, 2018

The “No Problem” performer was as pointed with his critique of the controversial racial imagery of the recent Netflix film, “Bright,” starring Will Smith.

“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.”

There were, of course, some who considered the complaints unfounded but at least one poster claiming to have an insider’s perspective on how ad campaigns like these are realized, suggested that it was unlikely that the entire creative team would have screened the ad without realizing there would be some type of pushback.

advertising perspective: every person in every frame is intentional. that being said, they’ve done several ads for this campaign. it’s likely they expected backlash and were careful to do several ads with several combinations of peoplehttps://t.co/MyQCF9SilG

— Alexander Sommer (@alex_sommer8008) March 26, 2018

Dude reaching for the moon on this one…it’s a light beer company…hence the lighter is better part

— Jimmy’s Brother (@19lukefehrsXX) March 27, 2018

pic.twitter.com/0jfdkgywaT

— Andrew (@senor_andy) March 26, 2018

The beer maker reaffirmed their commitment to diversity in a statement:

“Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows there’s more that unites us than divides us. 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.”

Chance’s misgivings about his initial comments appear appropriate according to the media reaction to the controversy.

You missed the entire point, I was pointing out that alot of these marketing agencies are doing willfully so we overreact and tweet about it, and you write an article and tweet, and we all say their brand name 50 times. Thats the first sentence of my shit. And u didnt mention it https://t.co/qgrNfrfGRX

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) March 26, 2018

What did you think of the “Lighter is Better” ad? Do you think Heineken and other advertisers intentionally produce problematic content in order to gain attention?