Heineken offers a variety of light beers. They have established themselves as one of the world's leading beers, with their product offered all over the world. Much like Pepsi was under fire for a questionable advertisement campaign with Kendall Jenner last year, Heineken may be the next major brand to deal with the consequences of publishing sensitive and risky material. While the brand's intentions were likely to promote their brand of light beers, sliding a bottle by several people of color and ending with the message "sometimes lighter is better" can absolutely be misconstrued and should have been avoided. Chance the Rapper took to his social media to bring the issue to light.
Sharing the video with his over seven million followers, Chance clearly took issue with the racial undertones taking place in the advertisement, writing, "I think some companies are purposely putting out noticably [sic] racist ads so they can get more views." The Chicagoan continued, "And that shit racist/bogus so I guess I shouldn’t help by posting about it. But 😂 I gotta just say tho. The “sometimes lighter is better” Hienekin [sic] commercial is terribly racist omg." Included below, the video shows a bartender noticing a woman and sliding a beer to her, strategically past three people of color before the message "sometimes lighter is better" appears. While it is unclear how this advertisement made it past Heineken's PR department, people have begun to take notice and it could spell trouble for the company.
Watch the video and judge for yourself. Do you think Chance is overreacting or is the commercial as "terribly racist" as he says?