Is Duncan Hines' Cupcake Ad Racist? (VIDEO)

Duncan Hines is coming under fire for a cupcake ad that many are calling racist. The ad, for Dunan Hines' "Amazing Glazes," features animated vanilla cupcakes. When the unidentified woman in the ad starts putting the chocolate glaze on them, they begin to sing and beatbox. The problem? Some say it looks a lot like the cupcakes are wearing blackface. Sites like Mother Jones, The Source and Racialicious all objected to the ad. Facing a backlash, Duncan Hines pulled the spot from YouTube.

But what do you think? Does the ad cross a line? Tell us below.

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Comments

[Gregg Walker]

09:53 AM on 01/10/2011

No, I wouldn't associate that music as Black Music so aside from the similarities to some of the derrogatory images of blackface minstrals once common in American culture, I, an African American am not offended.

[SteampunkDesign]

01:08 PM on 12/30/2010

its not even a funny ad...what makes it so funny ? Nothing. It has racist overtones, and is in poor taste. Honestly some of these ad execs need to take that broomstick out of their butts and produce creative ads, lately there are very few good ads on TV, radio or print. I think its time corporations start looking for new, fresh and creative talent.

[pleasantlyvague]

05:11 PM on 12/23/2010

This clearly isn't a racist ad. It's just icing. And the music sounds much more like bad pop electro music that's most popular with white college kids anyways. I'm rarely a person to say that someone is being "too sensitive," but in this case, I say so without hesitation. The accusers clearly have some pent up issues about race they need to work out with a therapist or psychiatrist or historian or something. I really don't know what about this commercial they need change that wouldn't seem even more racist than it started.

What, would it be okay if they were chocolate cup cakes instead? So chocolate icing only belongs on chocolate cupcakes, huh? But no, that would still be racist cause it's chocolate cup cakes making music. So lets make it vanilla icing then. A white women making vanilla cup cakes with vanilla icing. Why is that? What does she have against chocolate? Is it because she's racist and doesn't like brown things? I think so. So why not use those marble swirl cakes to represent mixed race people, huh? Or why don't we change the style of music so it doesn't sound like stereotypical "black music," even though it's a genre popular across all races and genders in modern American society?

It's a stupid commercial concept, yea. But it's not racist unless you're one of those people obsessed with race who insists on finding some element of racism in absolutely everything. They're singing cupcakes. Let it go.

[BrianPK80]

05:59 AM on 12/24/2010

The images it uses refer back to racist imagery of many decades ago... I'm thinking 1920's and 1930's. It does look a lot like "blackface." I'm just not sure how many people in today's culture would recognize it as such. Putting chocolate icing on vanilla cupcakes and having them sing is not racist. But an educated artist would likely be familiar with the use of blackface imagery from 100 years ago, and the decision to pay homage to it today is questionable.

[pleasantlyvague]

12:43 PM on 12/24/2010

Oh it's "recognizable." The ridiculous part of it is assuming the artist is TRYING to pay "homage" to blackface in a commercial about god damn cup cakes instead of just doing the stupid commercial by making standard looking cup cakes sing. Give me a break.

[Manny Peddy]

04:46 PM on 12/22/2010

As an immigrant to the US, I will tell you that American race issues make almost no sense, from start to finish. Just a load of nonsense.

[bkrider9]

11:59 AM on 12/28/2010

LOL! Judging from your posts, that sounds about right.

[Staxx]

02:23 PM on 12/22/2010

For those who don't or don't want to understand, when you use something to insult and degrade a people, they become very sensitive to such things. If you care about people in general you would understand, if you don't care you wouldn't understand. Have a nice day.

[JessCostello]

04:23 PM on 12/22/2010

Shouldn't this be considered anti-White too?

[Staxx]

09:10 PM on 12/23/2010

You can definitely consider it anything you deem fit.

[monkey-fish-frog]

11:03 AM on 12/15/2010

Is it then racist and stereotypical that the unfrosted "vanilla" cupcake is completely unrythmic and cant hold a tune until it becomes chocolate frosted?

[Cookie Monsta]

06:36 PM on 12/17/2010

Yes.

[JessCostello]

04:23 PM on 12/22/2010

Absolutely.

[Konrad Klean]

08:42 AM on 12/15/2010

Yeah, its racist, the one "white" cupcake is ostracized for being sound-deaf until he/she gets the "chocolate treatment"

While we're at it, lets just go ahead and make so people of different ethnicities can only wear colors which match their skin tone. Furthermore, a license and a valid birth certificate will be required for the purchase of the following:

-Chocolate Syrup
-Vanilla Icing
-Rice
-Curry
-Marinated Herring

[Julie Austin]

12:52 AM on 12/15/2010

Didn't much care for the ad, but I sure don't see where it's racist.

Maybe they should have used green frosting. Oh, but then the poor Martians would be offended.

[Phatcat]

01:31 AM on 12/21/2010

It's black face, but with cupcakes so it's okay! Right?

[pleasantlyvague]

05:22 PM on 12/23/2010

-_- It's not black face.

Have you ever seen yellow cupcakes with chocolate icing? So what, cupcakes can only sing if their icing matches their flavor, even if they don't taste as good? It's icing. You don't pick it for it's color. You bake with it. Would it offend you less if they came up with white chocolate icing to be used on the yellow cupcakes?

The cupcakes start singing once they have their icing because the icing tastes delicious and makes them taste good enough to sing. It's a stupid ad, yeah, but there is nothing about it that's inherently racist. You only think it is because you're preoccupied with race, thinking that if you go find racism in everything it makes you less racist. Really, I think this is only a problem if you make it a problem. They're singing cup cakes with popular flavors of cake and icing. If it offends you, it says more about you than the commercial.

[SuburbanSweetheart]

11:39 PM on 12/14/2010

This commercial is a few things, including annoying & just plain unappealing - but I'd never, ever think to call it racist. I think The Root's got it right: http://www.theroot.com/buzz/duncan-hines-embroiled-blackface-cupcake-scandal#

[bkrider9]

01:17 AM on 12/15/2010

The Root is not likely to be a reliably disinterested source in this since it is a website bound hand and foot to mainstream advertisers like DH.

[pleasantlyvague]

05:39 PM on 12/23/2010

Excuse me but when the Root, which is directed towards black people and race issues, makes a point to review the commercial and say that it's not worth anyone's time to make a fuss over the possibility of it being interpreted as racist, it's a pretty clear sign people need to let it go.

The Root has a definite tendency to call things racist that actually aren't, like the unemployment of black men in New York City, which the article references. That's statistics, not racism, and there are plenty of reasons besides racial discrimination that could lead to that statistic. For example, the majority of African Americans in NYC live in relatively poor parts of the city and attend low quality inner city schools with very high drop out rates and where the majority of the students are black or hispanic. That means there will be a large number of blacks, and minorities in general, without high school diplomas or other forms of job qualifications. It's not so much racism as an unfortunate side effect of employers hiring the most qualified applicants instead of just giving the black guy the job cause lots of black people don't have jobs. Yeah, a few of those men might not have jobs due to racial discrimination, but not 3 out of 4. And yeah, it would be great if a higher percentage of them were employed. But is it racism that they're not? Not really.

[bkrider9]

08:40 PM on 12/14/2010

1. The underlying issue here is that blacks and most minorities have virtually zero control over the content of messages in the mass media.

2. The only thing that makes some folks happy is a daily practice of racism in jokes, at the job, in the media, and so on. And if you need racism to soothe your ego, then brother you are far beyond hypersensitivity.

3. Imagine if the tables were reversed: Imagine that whites were the minority in the US, and the mass media were controlled by blacks, Hispanics, Japanese and Chinese, who for centuries published negative images of whites in the newspapers, magazines, on the radio and on television, in the movies and in theater. Imagine...

[Konrad Klean]

08:44 AM on 12/15/2010

You mean that its okay for Little Wayne, Kanye West, and Lil'Kim and so on to not only publish negative images but create new and innovative stereotypes of minority people, however; taboo for everyone else?

Sounds like discrimination to me.

[bkrider9]

10:08 AM on 12/15/2010

"Sounds like discrimination to me." In a way you are right.
 
Take a closer look, and you'll see that blacks have been used for negative image-creation for decades and decades. The negative rap scene is just an updated version of an old, old game.
 
The key word here is "control". Who controls the media? Certainly not the rappers; they are prominent figures in front of the camera but have virtually no power behind it.
 
The media are controlled by 5 - count them - 5 large corporations: Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Viacom, Bertelsmann. (See the classic book by Ben Bagdikian, "The New Media Monopoly." )
 
I don't think rappers have much say on their boards, but if I'm wrong let me know.
 
 

[Pikkewyn]

07:29 PM on 12/17/2010

Greetings from a parallel universe where we have a black person named Oprah Winfrey who has had significant influence on the media in our dimension and she is just one example. I am sorry things are not going that way there.

[bkrider9]

08:24 PM on 12/14/2010

The most hypersensitive people in the US are those who, consciously or unconsciously, harbor racist beliefs and emotions.

The ones whining about hypersensi­tivity are demonstrat­ing the greatest hypersensi­tivity. On an NPR radio program yesterday a speaker mentioned what many people have been saying for years: In any random gathering of people in the US, if you bring up the issue of racism or slavery, and whites really can't stand to hear about it. Blacks also have difficulty, but that's usually if whites are in the room.

So who is hypersensi­tive? Those who moved heaven and earth to create racist hatred, and then moved them back to cover up the crime.

[Pikkewyn]

07:40 PM on 12/17/2010

Let's see, NPR . . . NPR . . . hmm, that name rings a bell. Oh yeah, that's the network that fired the black guy.

[Manny Peddy]

05:06 PM on 12/22/2010

In any random gathering of people in the US, if you bring up the issue of racism or slavery, and whites really can't stand to hear about it. Blacks also have difficulty­, but that's usually if whites are in the room.
===========

I heard what Holder said; Americans are cowards about race.

What whites do not want to hear is more preaching by Blacks about whites are evil and should be all killed blah blah blah. Without an ability to say anything in return.

There is plenty of blame to go around. And blacks bear a huge share of the responsbility for race trouble in the US. Whether they like it or not, and whether they admit it or not, and whether it is politically correct or not.

Where I am from, blacks are the wealthiest. They are the most educated. They live in the best parts of town. And all of this nonsense that the US is focused on is a nonissue.

I notice that a lot of "black celebrities" in the US are lighter skinned than some "whites". And a large fraction of US whites have a few percent of African ancestry (including at least 5 US presidents before Obama). And blacks are favored for jobs and contracts and in admission to schools and for scholarships etc. But the more they are given, the worse things get and the more they complain.

Something is wrong with this picture. And no, I do not think it is "racism".

[bkrider9]

11:55 AM on 12/28/2010

LOL

[RedEagleCollective]

07:36 PM on 12/14/2010

UMMMM...HAS ANYONE NOTICED THIS ISN'T HIP HOP MUSIC?!! It's not even close, or a reasonable fascimile thereof or could even be confused for hip hop. they're just singing cupcakes...and they're singing what sounds like a mish-mash of sounds from a 983 Casio home keyboard.

I mean, seriously, people. Racist?

[Konrad Klean]

08:50 AM on 12/15/2010

This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

[babydoll12912]

07:24 PM on 12/14/2010

I don't think it was intended to be racist, and I'm not necessarily offended by it, but I can definitely see how it would trigger an image of black face. It would only be an issue is someone is highly sensitive to those images, which a significant amount of people are. Besides, I think its great to hold advertisers accountable for how their ads could affect different people.

By the way, the idea that if you see racism in certain situations makes you a racist is bull. That, I can imagine, is only something someone who hasn't been subjected to racism would say.

[purenergy]

06:50 PM on 12/14/2010

Its annoying, but not racist...in my opinion.

[grlbhvingbadly]

04:20 PM on 12/14/2010

*Sigh* Well I guess as long as the cupcakes aren't singing "jump down turn around, pick a bail of cotton" I can't be offended. Then again if they did, I'm pretty sure there would still be a lot of people saying "stop being so PC -- that's not racist. That old Dixie song is a part of American history."