Authority decides that Virgin Trains commercial is not racist to Native Americans
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is sort of like the U.K.’s version of the FCC but specifically for ads, has ruled that the commercial below is not racist. From The Manchester Evening News:
the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has decided the commercial was a tongue in cheek pastiche of Hollywood cowboys and Indians films and not a slur on Native Americans. It said the ad was unlikely to cause serious offence.
Hmmm… I wonder how many Native Americans are in the ASA?
Our friend Rob from Newspaper Rock is not amused though, and nominated the commercial for his Stereotype of the Month award:
In the ad, stereotypical savages on horseback attack a train but - silly savages! - they don’t realise it’s not the old-fashioned kind they can leap onto from the saddle. They slide down the metal sides of the train and fall off! Ho ho ho! Toward the end, an Indian wordlessly demands through the window glass a book that a white traveller is reading. The traveller refuses and the Indian menacingly raises his tomahawk to smash the glass but - phew! - the nasty savage is wiped off the side of the train by the front apron of a tunnel. Oh, my aching sides.
Oh Rob, lighten up! A committee of white men has decided for you that it’s not racist. So just listen to them — they know what’s best for all Native Americans.
I certainly hope that one day you will be able to grasp Virgin’s humor.
If you’re reading this in an RSS reader and can’t see the video, please click on the post headline.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Animelee/Andrew wrote:
My GOD! When will these stereotypes die?! It’s almost 2007, and these colonial-times stereotypes that are well over 400-years-old still go on.
MAN! ARGH!
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 8:06 am ¶
Tariq Nelson wrote:
You see the problem is that you people are just too sensitive. This commercial is just soooo funny and based in reality. My train was attacked just the other day in the same manner.
Why don’t we protest to bring back the old racist cartoons like “So White”
Ah! The good ol’ days
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 8:38 am ¶
merq wrote:
Rob forgot to mention the kicker:
“Man who go on big train
Have big idea.”
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 8:54 am ¶
Barbara wrote:
What … the …?
Can some official whiteguy panel also tell me what the point of that commercial is? Because apart from the racist stupidity, I’m stumped.
Dammit. Now I’m going to have to a new cell phone plan …
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 11:57 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
You know, it amazes me… More and more I’m feeling like the Geico Caveman dudes: trying to prove your point in a corporate and social environment that just doesn’t GET why you’d be offended. I’m loving the one w/ the therapist who doesn’t GET why the caveman is so offended. “What if I said, so easy only a therapist could do it?”
Hrm. That may warrant its own post at this point.
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 1:06 pm ¶
Paul M. wrote:
And if the commercial was a bunch of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid outlaws trying to rob the train would you cry racism against stereotypes about white late 19th century western men? I don’t think so. This blog is a perfect example of political correctness gone crazy
By the way I look at the GEICO ad as making fun of political correctness. If the people on this blog are offended by something in an advertisement 99.9999% of the people in the world don’t give a shit, as they shouldn’t.
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 1:33 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Paul M:
Look at the way Native Americans of all tribes have been portrayed in the media culture for the last 150 years. Look at the history of genocide, forced labor, relocation, and other fun human rights abuses. Read what the reality of the 500+ tribes were like pre and post colonization by European colonists and afterwards by the English, French, Spanish, and United States governments, respectively, and compare that to the popular culture and “historical” stereotypes of Native Americans. DO you really think Native Americans have been portrayed fairly?
And then look at how your “white western men” have been portrayed.
If you can prove that “white western men” have been consistently portrayed as savages, noble or otherwise, as primitive, and as “on the way out,” then you can bitch. Does the history shows that every “white western” man was maligned or sterotyped based on the actions, traditions, and beliefs of one group, gang, town, or territory? No - they are the heroes, the winners, and even the outlaws are seen as heroic. When a Native American is seen as heroic, it’s usually in a sad, Pyrric Victory way… Meanwhile, sacred sites are routinely used for rock sculptures and nuclear waste storage. And ancestral remains less than 100 years old have been displayed in museums (not anymore, usually). And the federal goverment still owes many tribes millions of dollars in mineral, timber, and water rights on tribal land that have not been distributed.
Until then, you have no right to tell another group whether they should or should not be offended. Entitled much? That’s not being PC, that’s being FAIR.
>99.9999% of the people in the world don’t give a shit
Um, nice statistic - got the math to back that up? (Yes, I realize it’s a rhetorical statement on both our parts, but if you say WE’RE overreacting, then really so are you by using a trivial number to support your “case”.)
I refer you to a quote usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin (yup, a white male, neither demon nor angel - how’s that for “PC?”): “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”
Or, if you prefer, Green Day:
“I want to be the minority,
I don’t need your authority,
Down with the moral majority,
‘Cause I want to be the minority.”
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 4:20 pm ¶
Sewere wrote:
I was waiting for the non-PC police to show up..
Paul M,
Thank you so much for reminding us that we should gladly take the insult of being referred to as savage and obtuse. I mean who better to tell us what racism is than you?
Of course, we’re so biased that we can’t see the obvious comparison you make between good ol’ Butch and the Kid and the “dem dar Injuns” (cause you know how our media loves to lump us minorities into nameless categories and caricatures)… Yup, you’re right, we being too sensitive and PC….
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 4:21 pm ¶
MizuWari wrote:
Well, you KNOW that if they had Butch & Sundance in that commerical in place of the savage Injuns, they would’ve found a way inside the train, sat down with the rest of the civilized riders and at the end of the commercial, shared a clinking beverage toast and a smile with a rider…
…not like the end of this one, where the “savage” ends up being a menacing-looking waiter still in makeup who looks like he’s going to shank someone…but hey, that’s just MY opinion…I could be wrong!
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 4:30 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Why do I wonder what the book was?
Maybe, How the West Was Lost?
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 4:35 pm ¶
Sewere wrote:
Dammit, Lyonside beat me to it and always so much more detailed than I try to be…
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 4:45 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Nah, Sewere, I’m just a font of usually useless (occassionally useful) information
I admire posters like you who say in 15 words what I struggle to say in 50.
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 4:48 pm ¶
Jay wrote:
“And if the commercial was a bunch of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid outlaws trying to rob the train would you cry racism against stereotypes about white late 19th century western men?”
Two words: Straw Man.
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 6:09 pm ¶
Sewere wrote:
Don’t know why I forgot to put this in earlier but doesn’t Virgin run trains in the UK? If so, what in the hell are Native Americans on British farm fields, if it has nothing to do with colonial use of race caricatures?
But I guess they’ve overused the typical Scottish or Irish barbarian horde theme to the point of boredom…
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 6:44 pm ¶
merq wrote:
Lyonside:
I know you’re probably sick of hearing this from me, but… DAMN, you rock!
Sewere:
Wetin dey, man?!!
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 8:04 pm ¶
Sewere wrote:
Merq,
I dey o, my broda. I was really hoping to go to NY this year but just had too much work (and traveling) to do.
How far wit you now? Dat new website wey you come relase no easy at all. I don dey announce am to family and friends, make people go see. Let me know if you’re ever coming out to Berkeley or the San Francisco Bay Area.
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 8:53 pm ¶
merq wrote:
Sewere:
I get family for that Fremont area, but e don te since I take eye look am. Thanks for looking at the web-doc. It was initially intended as a huge project that would focus on each racial/cultural group with in as much detail as I went into for black people, but I had to be realistic when I realized I had only 3 months to put it together (hence the crude design).
Still, I’m definitely going to finish it sometime soon. I’d already shot a good deal of footage with non-black subjects, and I plan on taking my time to finish it (with no deadline hanging over me).
Posted 27 Dec 2006 at 9:53 pm ¶
Rob Schmidt wrote:
Great comments by everyone (except Paul M).
One slight correction: It was Barnaby McEwan who informed me of the Virgin Train ad and made the clever comments quoted above.
I wish I could pick the ad for the 2006 (Native American) Stereotype of the Year loser (http://www.bluecorncomics.com/stertype.htm), but I think “Apocalypto” and Budweiser’s Zagar ads have it beat.
Posted 28 Dec 2006 at 1:06 am ¶
Ginny wrote:
So if it’s a parody on the cowboys and Indian movies, then where are the cowboys in this commercial?? Come on, Virgin advertising team, get your lame act together!
Posted 02 Jan 2007 at 11:26 am ¶
Ariah Fine wrote:
yeah, that is pretty ridiculous
Posted 06 Jan 2007 at 2:07 am ¶
Barnaby McEwan wrote:
It’s good to see the word got out. This isn’t the first racist depiction of native people by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, the ad agency responsible for Virgin Trains’ recent Gibsonesque epic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com/bulletins/br/article/545241/land-rover-steers-minefield-racism-complaints/
That ad plus a wittily corrected version are available here:
http://web.mac.com/adcrit/iWeb/adcrit/Inuit%20vs%20SUV.html
The ASA also believes this ad is not racist (Google cache):
http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache%3Awww.asa.org.uk%2FASA_2004_rebuild%2FASAAppBase%2FAnnualReport2003%2Ftop10comp10.shtml
Posted 07 Jan 2007 at 5:20 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Oh no way - they were responsible for that awful Land Rover ad too? Thanks for letting us know, Barnaby!
Posted 07 Jan 2007 at 10:34 am ¶
Anonymous wrote:
whites wish that native peoples lived in europe.so they wont have to travel to the states just to powwow.and whites look so stupid trying to powwow in europe.
Posted 30 Jan 2007 at 11:24 am ¶