A complaint to the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) about a radio advert which was deemed as offensive to Indians has been dismissed.
The directorate of the ARB was asked to consider a complaint by Jessica Singh-Gordon against Opel South Africa.
The radio commercial was aired on Hot 102.7 in which the advertiser advertised the Corsa Lite vehicle by using fictitious characters Raj 1 and Raj 2.
The advert goes as follows:
Raj 1: Raj, is that you Raj?
Raj 2: Yes, it’s me. Is it you too, Raj?
Raj 1: Yes, it is me too Raj. Although nowadays I am called Ray because I recently became enlightened. I discovered the light.
Raj 2: Yes I see that you are glowing.
Raj 1: You can have the light too, you know?
Raj 2: How?
Raj 1: In the new Opel Corsa Lite of course. With grown up style, grown up spaciousness and grown up features, you too can lighten up. Just visit your nearest Opel dealer for a test drive.
Raj 1 and Raj 2: Opel Corsa Lite. The lite side of life.
Singh-Gordon in her complaint said that the advert was offensive to Indians.
She stated that “it is a so-called Indian accent being used, referring to ‘lightening’ of Indians - which is synonymous with skin lightening”.
In their response, the advertiser apologised to the complainant, adding that it was not their intention.
Explaining the use of the enlightenment, the advertiser said in this context, is a reference to gaining greater knowledge or a greater spiritual understanding of something.
In its finding, the ARB’s directorate said it acknowledges and appreciates that colourism may be common within the Indian community.
“With the traditional old-fashioned perception that light/fair skinned people were more attractive than dark skinned people, and there was a fixation at some point to become light skinned by using (harmful) skin lightening products.”
The directorate said it also “absolutely agrees” that any commercial that encourages skin lightening, or condones the idea that lighter skinned people are somehow “better”, is completely unacceptable.
However, the directorate found that this particular radio commercial does not imply or refer to “lightening” of Indian skin colour or skin-lightening, and, therefore, does not demean or exploit Indian people.
Thy said to gain a greater perspective of the issue, the directorate asked members of the ARB, as well as a few Indian colleagues, in particular Indian women who are historically more affected by this issue, to listen to the radio commercial to ascertain whether they shared the same view as the complainant.
“The directorate confirms that none of these individuals thought that the radio commercial was referring to “lightening” of Indian people or skin lightening.“
And in conclusion, the Directorate said it does not consider the radio commercial to be offensive or discriminatory on the basis of race.
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