http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_en_tv/dunkin__donuts_ad_pulled
Dunkin' Donuts pulls Rachael Ray ad after complaints
By MARK JEWELL, AP Business Writer
BOSTON - Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray
after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the
celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim
extremism and terrorism.
The
coffee and baked goods chain said the ad that began appearing online
May 7 was pulled over the past weekend because "the possibility of
misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."
In the spot, Ray holds an iced coffee while standing in front of trees with pink blossoms.
Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin,
complained that the scarf wrapped around her looked like a kaffiyeh,
the traditional Arab headdress. Critics who fueled online complaints
about the ad in blogs say such scarves have come to symbolize Muslim
extremism and terrorism.
The kaffiyeh, Malkin wrote in a column posted online last Friday, "has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad.
Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim
terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the
apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant)
fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."
A statement issued Wednesday by Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin' Brands Inc., however, said the scarf had a paisley design, and was selected by a stylist for the advertising shoot.
"Absolutely no symbolism was intended," the company said.
Dunkin' spokeswoman Michelle King said the ad appeared on the chain's Web site, as well as other commercial sites.
Amahl Bishara, an anthropology lecturer at the University of Chicago
who specializes in media matters relating to the Middle East, said
complaints about the scarf's use in the ad demonstrate
misunderstandings of Arab culture and the multiple meanings that
symbols can take on depending on someone's perspective.
"I think that a right-wing blogger making an association between a
kaffiyeh and terrorism is just an example of how so much of the
complexity of Arab culture has been reduced to a very narrow vision of
the Arab world on the part of some people in the U.S.," Bishara said in
a phone interview. "Kaffiyehs are worn every day on the street by
Palestinians and other people in the Middle East — by people going to
work, going to school, taking care of their families, and just trying
to keep warm."
While some extremists and terrorists may wear kaffiyehs, "To reduce
their meaning to support for terrorism has a tacit racist tone to it,"
Bishara said.
Malkin, in a posting following up on last week's column, said of
Dunkin's decision to pull the ad, "It's refreshing to see an American
company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to
Islamic jihad and its apologists."
Ray, host of the Food Network television program "30 Minute Meals" as well as a syndicated daytime talk show, began appearing in ads for Dunkin' Donuts
in March 2007. When Dunkin' announced the partnership, it said Ray
would be featured in TV, print, radio and online spots in a campaign
running through 2010.
