Ashton Kutcher’s “Brownface” Popchips Advertisement As Raj The Bollywood Producer
By Kamla Bhatt • May 3rd, 2012Category: Books, Movies, Music, Televison, Bollywood, Diaspora, YouTube Videos
Ashton Kutcher’s “brownface” advertisment for Popchips has roiled the calm waters of the desi community in the US and other parts of the world. Did Popchips forgot to factor in how tightly networked the desi community is in the online world? So, the question is did Popchips and Kutcher push the envelope on this one? Here is a link from The New York Times on the Popchips campaign.
Popchips roped in Kutcher as their brand ambassador a couple of years age and made him the President of Pop Culture . In their latest media campaign ”World Wide Lovers,” he appears in 4 different avatars and that is the one that has created a lot of buzz. One of the avatars that Kutcher plays is as “Raj” Bollywood producer and speaks with a thick Indian accent. Clearly, the desi avatar of Popchips “World Wide Lovers,” does not sit well with the desi community.
Here is an update from Huffington Post on the controversy with a clarification from Popchips about the advertisement.
Note: For some inexplicable reason I was not able to locate the Popchips advertisement, but found the clips embedded above. If you find a link please let me know. Thanks.