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A lot of people still say Britain has a racism problem. Whilst there is no doubt that this sick issue perpertrated by ignorance still exists, things are nothing like when our parents were young – thankfully!

Case in point is this Orange poster:

Tinchy Stryder and Orange poster

Whilst walking by the poster last night (with some older generation folks) they stopped and pointed it out to me as an example of how things have changed (for the better). It took me a few moments to work out what they were talking about and then I realised. It was the realisation that left me with mixed feelings – sad that I still recognised what they were talking about and happy that it was not immediately apparent to me. I also wondered if anyone at Orange or their ad agency had given this any thought? There may well be the few who get offended but the same url /monkey is applied to all the posters and relates to the personality of fun (I think). Advertisers need to be aware of how their work can be viewed and the social ‘baggage’ that they sometimes have to drag along. Likewise they should never shy from a good idea because of the risk of a few people taking the campaign out of context. The Orange campaign is a good one and any person offended by the above advert is as equally narrow-minded as the person that would endorse it for the wrong reasons.

So my conclusion is that it’s a good thing most people will miss the ‘racial banana skin’ on this advert as it shows how our country is progressing and moving on from horrible racist terms to describe people, but the fact this post was written shows we still have some distance to go. What are your thoughts?