Utah Cancels State Fair Ads Featuring Black Actor

No accounting for lousy taste – but Utah cancelled this years ad run for their State Fair which featured a black actor. The ads have historically been largely tongue in cheek, and in past years have featured take offs on the Napoleon Dynamite movie, as well as a series which ran several years ago around a young girl.

This was one of the ads which was cancelled – which I think is a riot:

This ad series was replaced by this, from 2 years ago:

While I agree, having a black person (or any person of color) in a ad in Utah doesn’t exactly fit the states “demographic”, which is overwhelmingly white…

White folks in Utah don’t boogie to Soul Music? I mean, it was pretty much a social faux pas to have a wedding reception  in this country for the past 20 years without having the DJ either a) the Electric Slide, b) something from Kool and the Gang, or c) KC and the Sunshine Band, which while not all black, certainly were influenced by R&B…

Even if the wedding theme was “Country”!

Bullpuckkies!

Utah State Fair Dumps Ads Featuring Black Man

The Utah State Fair changed its ad campaign at the last minute … because the soul-inspired spots featuring a black man singing about funnel cakes and pigs didn’t meet “the demographics” or “flavor” of the fair, says the chairman. In their place, the Fair Board (which, the chairman says, did not preview the original ads before they started running) decided to re-run the spots from two years ago, starring a little girl and a cow. (Watch all three in the gallery.)

“People only see the ads for a week and a half or so, and then there’s nothing else for a year,” the chairman tellsKSL.com. “If it’s a good ad, why not use it? Our Napoleon Dynamite ad was a classic.”