Friday, 26 January 2018

The Hi(jab) and L'O(real)

The long and winding road to Politically Correct advertising is one that has undone many company's over the years, and The Face of L'Oreal campaign has also joined that list.

Racism Or Valid Comment - Depends On Your Cultural Point Of View.
Racism Or Valid Comment - Depends On Your Cultural Point Of View.

This after tweets posted in 2014 by Amena Khan, who was to be a model featured in a UK advertising campaign, were deemed to be anti-Israeli, or anti-Semitic.
 
She was to be the first hijab-wearing model to appear in a L'Oreal haircare campaign, which is a kinda odd way to advertise haircare products when you think about it, but no doubt makes sense somewhere in deepest PC LaLa land:
 
 Some of the offending tweets were captured by most of the worlds press (apart from the BBC, who reported that 'Newsbeat has not seen the tweets as they have now been deleted' .... Good old Beeb, can't risk going off message on PC Multiculturalism). The tweets included the following:
  • 'U repeatedly say "nobody is above the law". Well, under international law, Israel is an illegal state. Yet u support them. EXPLAIN #AskDavid'.
  • 'Israel = Pharoah. Both are child murderers. Insha'Allah, defeat also awaits the former; it's only a matter of time. #HopeForGaza #SaveGaza'.
and in a tweet to Channel 4 TV presenter Jon Snow:  
  • 'Your "children of Gaza" piece was incredibly moving. Israel is a sinister state & the one who suffer most are innocent children'.

She at least retained some dignity, and did the honourable thing, by apparently jumping before she was pushed .... she stepped down from the upcoming campaign, deleted the tweets (but not soon enough apparently), and apologised for any upset caused, saying that she is all for inclusiveness.

Overall the Face of L'Oreal campaign has not been a happy one, after transgender model Munroe Bergdorf was fired by the brand in September 2017, for a comment on racism in the UK in a lengthy Facebook post e.g. 'Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people.' .... later followed up with a live Breakfast TV interview in which the N word bomb was dropped more than once ..... a real NO NO in PC TV land.

As to the question of the legality of Israel as a state, raised by one of Ms Khan deleted tweets. Well this is only a question in the minds of a particular set of states. As of 2013, 32 United Nations member states did not recognise the State of Israel: 18 of the 21 UN members in the Arab League: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

They are joined by a further 11 members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Chad, Guinea, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mali, Niger, and Pakistan; and Bhutan, Cuba, and North Korea ..... in other words the vast majority of the Muslim world. Israel has been a state recognised by the rest of the world via its UN membership, since the 11th of May 1949.

You can at least sympathise with US Presidents Donald Trump's blunt exasperation with the Islamic world, which has adopted a starting stance so extreme, that no reasonable solution based on that starting point is possible.

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