Beatboxing White Family Give Black Boyfriend Grief
Here's an amazing commercial from MTV that captures all the humorous elements of a boyfriend coming over to his girlfriend's house to pick her up and facing the wrath and annoyance of her family as well as his girlfriend's embarrassment over the confrontation. It ends in the usual way with the girl grabbing the guy and running out of the house as the family continues to berate. But, there's a twist to this ad. The boyfriend is black, the family white and they, not the black guy, speak "beatbox" which, in a stereotypical twist, the black guy can't understand. The ad ends simply with "Speak." It's a powerful message in many ways. It encourages communication on many levels. Parent to child. Child to parent. Family member to family member. Family to boyfriend. Girlfriend to boyfriend. Without one understandable word, the ad communicates better than most ads that carry understandable words.
Comments
This ad is horrible. Unfunny, dated and lame.
You're reading way too far into this.
I could have sworn the line is "Speak MTV" and the ad is just a bad iteration of that thought.
worst commercial ever.
It is 'Speak MTV'. Struck me more as another attempt to buy into hiphop culture despite the fact that MTV is now a bastion of all things insincere and tacky, and about as far removed from actual hip-hop as it's possible to get whilst still being music-related.
The execution's kinda cool though...
The ad ends simply with "Speak." It encourages communication in many ways. Parent to child. Black to white. Arab to Jew. Gay to straight. Without a single word, it reunites the entire human race. It is the single greatest work of art in the Western canon. It will forever end conflict. MTV has done more in this advertisement than Mother Theresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. together.
(Sorry. Couldn't resist. It's just that the original post is so damned earnest. Can I please remind the original poster that this is an MTV commercial?)
I'm a little biased as I worked intimately on this project which I'm proud to say has garnered some prestigous industry awards. While I think criticisms of MTV can be justified you have to give some props for this commercial. Rarely do you find a branding advertisement as unique. It is honorable that MTV put a spotlight on beatboxing as many in the real and fake hip hop community all but cast this artform to a mere sidenote of hip-hop history. I cannot speak for all beatboxers but I can say with certainty that many in the beatboxing community were delighted to have the artform displayed in such a creative manner. People will criticize whatever is available to criticize so that is not surprising, but to say it was the worst commercial ever well that is pure non-sense. The next time you find a mainstream commercial which presents a young bi-racial couple being engaged in an artform as unique beatboxing please drop me line, but I won't hold my breath.