Black/brown face is such a touchy subject and there’s SUCH a thin line (if one at all) between funny and just blatantly inappropriate…that I don’t even know why people attempt it at all. There’s so many other ways to be funny. Ashton Kutcher and snack company Popchips are the latest to try and fail at the attempt, after Ashton donned brownface makeup to play a goofy Bollywood producer in their new ad (which has now been pulled.) Details below.
The ad — which debuted on the Popchips website — featured Ashton playing a variety of characters in a spoof “dating” commercial … including a biker, a hippie, and an Indian guy named Raj.
The ad pissed off a whole bunch of people — including blogger Anil Dash … who called the ad, “a hackneyed, unfunny advertisement featuring Kutcher in brownface talking about his romantic options, with the entire punchline being that he’s doing it in a fake-Indian outfit and voice.”
Dash explained on his blog, “I think the people behind this Popchips ad are not racist. I think they just made a racist ad.”
In the wake of the backlash, Popchips took down the ad … and Popchips CEO Keith Belling issued a statement saying, “We did not intend to offend anyone. I take full responsibility and apologize to anyone we offended.”
