Last month, workers quickly took down Samsung ads at South Station that basically called people in Mattapan phone thieves. Earlier today, Malia Lazu found a couple new Samsung ads also at South Station, that basically do the same thing, only this time swapping in Worcester and Ruggles.
With the first case, it was possible to think that they were just the work of some careless intern on the West Coast looking at the ends of a subway line, but there's no way to innocently pair Worcester and Ruggles - you really have to think about it (and for train purists, the ads don't even show Boston-area trains).
@SamsungMobile #knox marketing is #racist and classist again!! Just drop this campaign. @BostonNAACP1911 pic.twitter.com/kWJ4ioxrF9
— malialazu (@malialazu) September 20, 2017
Lazu also photographed Samsung ads in New York City that show the company's ad agency knows how to market their crap without getting racist about it.
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Ad:
Comments
Not to mention Boston Police Headquarters...
By anon
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 10:14am
...which is also at Ruggles.
Racist?
By StillFromDorchester
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 8:51am
You know, when you clam everything is racist it kind of hurts the cause of stopping REAL racism. But I guess a headline is more important than integrity.
It's an ad telling people how you can protect and recover your lost phone.....period.
EVERYTHING IS RACIST
By Lunchbox
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 9:19am
If you disagree you're the worst bigot of them all
Especially
By anon
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 9:50am
People like you who don't experience racism on a daily basis, and claim it therefore does not exist.
Get woke (aka wake up).
By Kaz
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 9:36am
Look, they're not criticizing the ad because it's WHITE letters ON TOP of BLACK background...as if that's some kind of coded racism deep in the ad maker's art department.
There's a clear point to be made when you're saying that the white guy pictured who just realized his phone is missing was heading to Worcester (60% white) but his phone is headed to Ruggles (Roxbury, 60% black). It's not as if he left it on a train that's going to Ruggles on his way to Worcester. It's not like Ruggles is the end of any of the lines because he forgot his phone on the Orange Line and it's going to ride to the end now. And given their other ad sent the phone to Mattapan, there's clearly a "stolen phones go to the majority black neighborhoods" vibe to these ads.
And that kind of stereotyping is pervasive and persistent. It's a systemic racism that not only reinforces to people who have never even been to Mattapan that "Mattapan is full of phone thieves" but also consistently reinforces to people from Mattapan that they're only known for being phone thieves.
And to top it off, it's UNNECESSARY at the same time. There's no reason to use Ruggles there, right? Your phone could be off to Kendall for all of the point of the ad. And even if this was an unconscious choice, then it must be called out and identified so that it is recognized next time and the next ad is necessarily NOT just another drumbeat in the persistent, pervasive racism.
snooze
By 963258741
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 11:57pm
snooze
The guy in this ad does not
By Metoo
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 12:26am
The guy in this ad does not look white to me.
Thank you and Lunchbox
By anon
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 9:48am
Wherever would we be without white people showing everyone where nothing is ever racist.
Whitesplaining is so necessary in the lives of people who live with racism every day!
Love to hear you whitesplain away the racism in slavery or Jim Crow. You would do it you know.
Whatever the intent, the ads are ineffective
By BiggerThanBoston
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 8:53am
How about taking the ambiguity out of "your phone goes" and stating, "you forgot your phone" or "your phone was stolen"?
Dumb ad
By Kaz
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 9:38am
Dude is wearing headphones, but didn't notice the music stopped when he left his phone on the train (or had it stolen off of him) until he's out on the platform and the train is taking off?
Yeah. Ok.
Bluetooth
By Sock_Puppet
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 9:42am
Strikes again
So it's okay to judge people
By anon
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 11:02pm
So it's okay to judge people by the color of their teeth?
Because that would command far less attention
By roadman
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 5:52pm
from the special snowflakes who are hell bent on turning everything, no matter how innocuous, into a discussion about racism.
Fool me once, shame on me...
By anon
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 7:59pm
When the first of these ads showed up here about a month ago, the "Harvard Square to Ashmont" one, I figured it was just the usual clueless non-Bostonian ad people putting their feet in their mouths with an awkward ad. And I thought it was the usual Chicken Littles turning a badly done ad into non-existent racism. And I said so here. But the fact that Samsung has done it AGAIN...even if they were clueless thee first time you'd think they would have caught wind of the uproar and cancelled the rest of the ad campaign. I never thought we'd see another one of these ads. I have to wonder what's going on here. Why would they perpetrate a deliberately racist ad campaign, which is now what they seem to be doing, even if it was originally a mistake? Even companies with blatantly racist or homophobic CEOs like Chic Fil A don't actually run racist or homophobic ADS, they just say racist or homophobic things. I don't get this whole thing.
How?
By bosguy22
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 9:08am
Is the CEO of Chick Fil A blatantly racist? Will he not sell chicken to non-whites?
Chic Fil A Guy
By anon
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 1:52pm
Not sure if he's racist but he was very publicly homophobic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A_same-sex...
Even the late Tom Menino got involved when Chic Fil A wanted to open a store here, saying homophobia would not be tolerated in his city.
Having to explain why this ad isn't racist
By Waquiot
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 6:00pm
Is a good sign of a poorly written ad.
So some of you can charge racism, while others can claim it is no such thing, but if the copy was done right, there would be no question. That's how an effective ad works.
^^THIS^^
By Div2Supt
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 7:30pm
The best, most straightforward comment in this thread.
So, Waquiot, when are you moving to Madison Avenue? ;)
I learned this years ago
By Waquiot
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 7:58pm
I spent 5 minutes explaining to a co-worker what an ad was "supposed to" mean. At the end, she said "oh, now I get it," which lead me to think and say "boy, if they way they expect to get their message across is to hope that someone can explain what it means, they are screwed, so it's just a bad ad."
Also, a friend of mine from back in the day is a copy writer for ad agencies.
By the way, this ad campaign
By Rob
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 8:01pm
By the way, this ad campaign is the current "plastered everywhere you can look" occupant of the waiting room at South Station.
I didn't inventory the whole collection, but the ad copy was mostly about "you forgot your phone" or "you went this way and your phone went that way" without mentioning locations.
I'm offended that you assume
By 963258741
Thu, 09/21/2017 - 11:59pm
I'm offended that you assume the people who would steal your phone who live in these neighborhoods are people of color. White people steal things too, you bloody racists.
Aren't you a clever little
By Scratchie
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 9:08am
Aren't you a clever little boy? Did you think that up all by yourself?
I wonder why....
By Michael Kerpan
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 1:11pm
... when one clicks on this troll's name one doesn't get the normal page that allows one to search its prior posts?
Bug in the code
By Kaz
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 1:18pm
Users are actually stored as ID numbers. The /users/ pages use your ID number to display certain pages (like your user contact page URL for example) but the user's profile page can be referenced with the user's name (with the ID dereferencing happening in the background). Since this user's name is all numbers, the dereferencing things you're trying to use an ID (which you're not) and goes that route and says there's no ID by that number.
It's a bug in the site software where it should be trying to use that username as a username and not an ID number.
Perhaps
By Waquiot
Fri, 09/22/2017 - 2:14pm
I think Adam banished him/her early this morning (or late last night, depending on what one calls that time just after midnight.)
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