Who came up with this Old Navy Ad? Police brutality and harassment are NOT funny.
While we were busy grumbling about Donald Trump hosting Saturday Night Live, we missed something even more offensive (if you can believe that): An Old Navy ad, titled “You Have the Right to Remain Stylish”. The ad, which stars actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, attempts to inject humor into the issue of police brutality and harassment of people of color.
Yes, seriously, and it’s something you’ve got to actually see to believe:
The Old Navy ad aired midway during SNL on Saturday night, and I’m surprised more people haven’t taken notice. The commercial opens with a scene that’s terrifyingly familiar to our nation’s young people and those who care about them: A cop (played by Louis-Dreyfus) stops a car, taps her flashlight against the driver’s window, and coldly orders the car’s occupants to “step out of the vehicle.”
Four good-looking, young hipsters get out — a white man, a black woman, and a man and woman of the sort of vague, not-quite-white ethnicity favored by modern TV producers — and Dreyfus radios in:
“Yeah, I’ve got two attractive couples in some high-end jackets…you’ve all gotta see this.”
Dreyfus then swaggers up and suspiciously demands, “Where’dja get them jackets?” and a woman sporting a stylish hat answers, “Old Navy.” While the viewer can’t quite believe anyone would consider these rather cheap-looking, unremarkable specimens of outerwear to be “high-end,” the cop can’t believe these coats weren’t stolen.
“Oh really. Didja steal them,” Dreyfus smirks, but that annoying bearded white hipster guy insists, “We bought them.” Then comes the dreaded frisking:
“Arms out. I’m gonna test the zippers, sir.”
As hipster guy’s friends gasp in horror and look away, he spreads his arms out. Dreyfus zips his jacket down and back up, then declares:
“It hangs well, I’ll give ya that, [but] You’re all going to prison.”
“No, look,” the woman in the hat pleads, “All outerwear’s on sale at Old Navy.” The police officer then orders them to face away from her, so she can jump in her squad car, peal out, and get one of those “high-end jackets” for herself.
“Face away from me! I’m gonna run away real fast…I’m going to Old Navy.”
This Old Navy ad is so incredibly tone-deaf and callous towards the Black Lives Matter movement, it defies belief. On the other hand, this is an industry that starves young women and forces them to totter down runways in 5″ heels…So go figure.
Photo: Video screen grab/Old Navy.
The post This Old Navy Ad Is BEYOND Offensive (VIDEO) appeared first on ReverbPress.