Dunkin' Donuts

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Dunkin Brands headquarters sign

Dunkin' Donuts is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company. It was founded by William Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1950. The chain was acquired by Baskin-Robbins' holding company Allied Domecq in 1990; its acquisition of the Mister Donut chain and the conversion of that chain to Dunkin' Donuts facilitated the brand's growth in North America that year. Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins eventually became subsidiaries of Dunkin' Brands, headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts, in 2004, until being purchased by Inspire Brands on December 15, 2020.[1]

With approximately 12,900 locations in 42 countries, Dunkin' is one of the largest coffee shop and donut shop chains in the world. Its products include donuts, bagels, coffee, and Munchkins donut holes.[2]

Blackface Thai Dunkin Donuts Ad

Dunkin' Donuts Thai Ad

The ad is to promote a chocolate "Charcoal Donut" that shows a Thai woman with black hair, blackface makeup, and bright pink lipstick. She is also holding a black donut.

The advertisement opens with a fair-skinned teenager wearing a white dress standing in a white room. A close shot of the girl’s face reveals a flash of defiance in her doleful eyes before she bites into a chocolate doughnut. Then the camera cuts to a splash of chocolate, the girl takes another bite -- and suddenly her white face turns black.

After that, the camera pulls back to show the girl now painted in chocolate all over, including her hair, done up in a 1950’s beehive. Her lips are bright pink. Finally a tag line flashes across the screen: “Charcoal Donut: Break every rule of deliciousness."[3]

Controversy

A Dunkin' Donuts ad in Thailand that featured a woman in blackface is causing international controversy. Several US media outlets picked up on the story, pointing out the clear resemblance of the chocolate covered girl in the doughnut ad to blackface minstrel caricatures from America in the 1930s and ‘40s that once mocked black Americans in the United States. After the ad campaign began, Human Rights Watch Asia demanded that Dunkin' Donuts remove the ad that running in Thailand and calling them "bizarre and racist."

"It's both bizarre and racist that Dunkin' Donuts thinks that it must color a woman's skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut," Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told the Associated Press. "Dunkin' Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it's offended and ensure this never happens again."[4]

Some analyst says that the message the ad delivered, whether it was intended or not to be about black people in America or dark skinned people in Asia, reflects a prejudice often used to discriminate.[5]

Clarification

The Thai franchise runs independently from the American operation. While Dunkin' Brands headquarters has apologized and mentioned in a statement that they are working with their franchisee to immediately pull the television spot and to change the campaign, the head of Dunkin' Donuts Thailand, Nadim Salhani, was unapologetic when first contacted about the ad.

"We're not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don't get it," Salhani told the Associated Press. "What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?." Her own teenage daughter is the model in the controversial photo.[6]

References

  1. Dunkin' Donuts. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  2. About Dunkin' Brands. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  3. Bagenal, Flora (2013). Blackface Dunkin' Donuts ad in Thailand brings racism accusation. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  4. Taube, Aaron (2013). Human Rights Watch Says This Thai Dunkin Donuts Ad Is 'Bizarre And Racist'. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  5. Bagenal, Flora (2013). Blackface Dunkin' Donuts ad in Thailand brings racism accusation. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.
  6. Bain, Zoe (2013). Dunkin' Donuts Apologizes for Racist Advertisement. Retrieved on December 26, 2020.