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Tyler the Creator responds to Mountain Dew ad controversy
Tyler the Creator responds to Mountain Dew ad controversy
22-year-old rap singer Tyler Gregory Okonma aka “Tyler, the Creator” has had a rough week with his 60-second “Mountain Dew” ad drawing a public backlash.
Designed as part of PepiCo’s cutting-edge plan to gain “street cred” with a new generation of “Mountain Dew” drinkers, the ad was immediately pulled after audiences objected to its racist and misogynist undertones.
The commercial featured a battered white woman who is viewing a police lineup of suspects consisting entirely of black men except for one female goat – the actual “perp”. The woman is in crutches stemming from the attack. The goat taunts her saying “You better not snitch on a playa.”
Eventually, the woman crumbles due to the stress and flees saying she cannot “do” it any longer. The backlash to the ad was severe prompting both PepsiCo and “Tyler, the Creator” to agree to pull the ad from use.
The rapper has now spoken out and made it clear that there is nothing he needs to learn from the experience. African-American Dr. Boyce Watkins declared the ad to be the “most racist commercial in history”. Be that as it may, the rapper says the criticism is “ridiculous” and will not “change his art” regardless.
“I’m gonna tell them some stupid idea I came up with five minutes before the meeting and they’re going to think it’s fucking retarded,” Mr. Okonma recounted. “And then I took a meeting with them and was like, OK, they’re really cool, like actually young, a little older than me, and it was like, “so tell us the commercial.’ And I’m like, “OK, so there’s a fucking goat — a goat, right? And he’s gonna drink the fucking Mtn Dew, and he’s gonna yell at the lady and then the cops are gonna pull him over and then he’s gonna be in jail and he’s gonna do PCP.’ And … they liked it. … They actually gave me a chance and let me be fucking 7 years old with their product.”
Well we definitely agree with it being one of the stupidest things we’ve seen!
Check out the ad below.
Source:
Tyler, the Creator Talks Mountain Dew Controversy: ‘It’s Not Gonna Change My Art in Any Way’
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tyler-creator-talks-mountain-dew-451628