A car advertisement by local car dealership JDM Automobile Carros Centre is sparking debate after being flagged for its use of blackface and racially-charged humour.
The video, which was posted on Facebook, featured a Chinese man with a painted blackface promoting the features of a Toyota Noah Hybrid to an off-screen female customer.
When the "customer" asked for his name, the salesman offered a long string of syllables. He then employed exaggerated gestures and broken English in pitching the car's features.
Various images and clips of African people were also frequently edited onto the video, often accompanied with a laugh track. The salesman’s face was frequently digitally altered in a mocking manner.
The video ended with the salesman showing his name and number on screen, prompting viewers to call him for inquiry.
The car dealership seems to frequently employs similar editing techniques in many of the videos on its Facebook page.
The video was promptly deleted from JDM Automobile's Facebook page after TNP reached out to the number listed at the end of the video for comment.
While the July 23 reel did not garner a lot of likes or comments, it recently caught the eye of Instagram account @wakeupsingapore, which reposted screenshots with the caption: "2024. A Blackface ad in Singapore (again). JDM Automobile Carros Centre."
The account sarcastically added: "Predictably, after this goes viral, JDM Automobile will say that it had 'no intention to be racist'."
The post ignited outrage among @wakeupsingapore's followers, with many expressing their disgust and disappointment.
“Always fascinating that a country that lauds it's multiracial make-up still has people who think this is okay,” one user commented.
“No one from the minority group works in that company or was involved in the decision-making,” wrote one Instagram user.
Another netizen cynically commented: "At this point of time, I think they’re just doing it for the free publicity. After all, any publicity is good publicity. They got the attention they wanted."
According to the car dealership’s Facebook page, it was an Sgcarmart-Nominated Premium Dealer between 2014 and 2015.
The salesman who was depicted in the video, who wished to be known as Kenny, said he was inspired by a video that had gone viral on YouTube in 2017.
He admitted to mimicking the person's mannerisms and language, stating he believed his long name to be a funny concept.
When questioned about the potential for offence, he claimed he did not consider the video to be racist.
"I think the guy is funny, so I just wanted to act funny," he added. "I never intended for it to be racist."
When asked why it was necessary to darken his face for the video, he said he just wanted to imitate the person from the 2017 video.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W85F-UmnbF4[/embed]Miss Chia, manager of the dealership, echoed his sentiment, emphasising that there was no intention to be racist and that the company was merely attempting to create "funny content" to attract viewers.
"It's a language that nobody can understand," she added.
Miss Chia confirmed that she had seen the video prior to it being posted on Facebook, but did not think it was offensive. She added that a viewer had previously written in expressing concern about the video's content and threatening to report the video.
"I'm not sure that this kind of video can even be reported," she said. "It's just content to attract people."
TNP understands that the dealership's sales staff are given free rein to produce their own video content with minimal oversight. Miss Chia explained that the company only reviews the translations for their multi-lingual marketing efforts, ensuring accessibility for Singapore's diverse population.
"Our videos are more about the content," she said. "We're not out to be racist, it's not in the intention."
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This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.
