Stereotypical Vomit

That's exactly what this December 2007 Hanes ad campaign is:

Some person's purge of stereotypes onto a canvas, for all the world to see.

Apparently these images have been abuzz in the Blogosphere. Ofcourse, 4 months after the fact. Fellow blogger Ana (blackbrown and queer) posted this and I had to add (no pun intended) my two cents.

Like her, I agree that the concept is kind of clever. But clever is as clever does. And it's definitely a stretch.

"Tags" and "labels" are a FAR CRY from SLURS.

This is definitely not the kind of material that should be pumped out on national or international scales. Some folks will see the wit, and others will have a laugh at the people they routinely see fit to marginalize, debase and judge.

I should qualify that by saying, I appreciate art that challenges us to look closely at ourselves, the views we hold, but not everybody looks at art in the same way. Not everybody gets that they are being challenged (nor do they care). And frankly, SOME people don't want that challenge.

Furthermore, it does nothing to move us beyond stereotypes. These images conjure up the very worst and the most problematic iconography about gay, Black and Pakistani people. It re-ifies stereotypes by compiling icons that can be vaguely correlated with the communities at which these slurs are hurled.

And lets be clear, these aren't just LABELS or TAGS, Hanesbrands.

They are SLURS -- stylized in Photoshop.

And sure McCann Erickson designed them, but it just "happened" to appear with your official logo on it? GET REAL!