Mountain Dew Pull Controversial Tyler The Creator Commercial - Watch Now
Friday, 03 May 2013
Written by Elliott Batte
Odd Future star Tyler, the Creator has come under fire for a recent advert he created for soft drink Mountain Dew, as people think it’s racist - but he’s claimed that the criticism won’t ‘change his art’ in any way.
Just 60 seconds long, the advert sees a woman with a black eye, cuts, and on crutches taken to a police line-up to pick out her assailant - only for a goat, the only non-black male in the line-up, to tell her ‘ya better not snitch on a playa’, and that ‘snitches get stitches’. The woman then claims that she ‘can’t do it’, and leaves - with the advert ending telling listeners to ‘dew it’.
The advert has since been pulled, and has been on the wrong end of a lot of criticism from anti-racism and anti-misogyny campaigners, who believe it belittles the violence of women as well as playing to racial stereotypes. But, this is something that has confused Tyler, who states that the criticism ‘blows his mind’ - and he’s claimed that he won’t let people’s views ‘change’ his ‘art’.
“I mean, it's not gonna change my art in any way. I just hope that somehow, if it gets bigger or if it disappears tomorrow, that it just opens people's minds up. I just actually can't believe that somebody sat there and pointed out that it was all black people, instead of being confused that it was a freaking goat talking. That's mind-blowing. That's mind-blowing that people still think like that. I'm standing here in the freaking sun, burning up on a freaking conference call when I could be out skating, all because of some black dude's opinion that other people who can't think for themselves followed.”
Though Tyler has stressed his disbelief at the backlash he’s received, and though many people online loved it, Mountain Dew have pulled the advert and since offered an apology. Mountain Dew said:
“We apologise for this video and take full responsibility. We have removed it from all Mountain Dew channels and Tyler is removing it from his channels as well.”
You can check out the advert below - let us know how it makes you feel by leaving a comment in the box below.
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