Tyler The Creator’s Manager Speaks On Mountain Dew Removing Odd Future Commercial
Tyler The Creator has been taken through the ringer this past week as political activist Dr. Boyce Watkins helped spearhead a move to get the rapper’s Mountain Dew commercial removed from the airwaves because it depicted racial stereotypes.
The Odd Future frontman came up with the creative treatment for the series of commercials which featured Felicia the Goat and used his voice and also states that the executives loved the idea prior to the controversy.
In the commercials, “Felicia” is rude and will do anything for the soft drink including attacking a waitress at a restaurant. In the third part of the commercial series, the white waitress is in a police station looking at line-up of all Black men and the goat. The Black men were also members and associates of his crew Odd Future so it appears everyone was getting a check.
Mountain Dew has since pulled the ads and Tyler even apologized but still wants to meet with Dr. Boyce. Hopefully this conversation comes soon because if you are going to criticize the youth, at least hear them out when they are willing to talk.
Christian Clancy, Odd future’s manager also addressed the situation through his Tumblr even further.
He wrote:
It was never Tyler’s intention to offend however offense is personal and valid to anyone who is offended. Out of respect to those that were offended the ad was taken down. For those who know and respect Tyler he is known for pushing boundaries and challenging stereotypes thru humor.
This is someone who grew up on David Chappelle. This situation is layered with context and is a discussion that Tyler would love to address in the right forum as he does have a point of view. As someone who hasn’t had the experience of being discriminated against i choose to respect the opinion of those who have.. what I can speak to is Tyler who represents much more than the current narrative this story suggests.
Contrary to what many may discern from this Tyler is the embodiment of not judging others, his delivery may not be for everyone (which is true for anyone who pushes boundaries) but his voice is nonetheless impt to the conversation since his demographic understands what he ultimately stands for and sees the irony of it all.
Context may or not help those who are offended and I wholly respect that but for those who are interested I can offer the following and leave the rest to Tyler. 1. This spot was part of an overall admittedly absurd storyline about a crazy goat who becomes obsessed with Mountain Dew 2. The lady in front of the lineup is the waitress from the first spot. 3.
The lineup consists of Tyler’s friends and odd future members who were available that day. (LBoy, Leftbrain, Garret from Trash Talk and Errol) 4. He absolutely never intended to spark a controversy about race. it was simply an again admittedly absurd story that was never meant to be taken seriously.
Again we apologize if this was taken out of context and would never trivialize racism, especially now in America where voting and civil rights are being challenged at the highest level. I can however stand firmly by someone I have believed in since we met only because I know him and i know all of this was never his intent.
Are activists just picking every thing rappers say and do apart and calling for their commercial endorsements to be dropped to help build their platforms or was this a legitimate case of a racial stereotype being used to market Mountain Dew.
Follow us on twitter@hiphopenquirer
