First Volkswagen faced a racial insensitivity backlash for its “painfully white dude speaks with Jamaican accent, mon” spot:

Now Coke faces the same sort of outrage over its Mad Max-style “crazy desert race” ad, which happens to include some unfortunate footage of a stereotypical Arab man pulling a camel.

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We almost want to congratulate the company: it’s pretty hard to offend two huge groups of potential customers with a single item while calling it “whimsical” and pricing it at 400 bucks.

Anthropologie apparently removed the offending stick from its site after thousands of Twitter messages and emails decried it as the racist knicknack that it so obviously is.

…and here’s the inevitable response from the retailer’s PR director:

“An independent artisan makes these one-of-a-kind candlesticks from vintage ceramics. Unfortunately two that we received included extremely inappropriate figurines, and we have removed them from our website. We sincerely regret the offense we have caused.”

Yeah OK, but we know how retail works–somebody approved this thing for sale, entered it into the system, wrote a copy block describing it, etc. The question barely needs to be asked: WHY?!?

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Two different Arkansas natives, each of whom hold public office and would like the voters in their districts to re-elect them this year, have made some very dubious statements about certain…elements of our country’s history.

State Representative Jon Hubbard, who’s running this year to represent District 58 again, has some great instincts when it comes to DIY PR: He wrote and self-published a book titled Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative that’s currently available for download on Amazon for $3.99. We have to admire anyone with the discipline to write a 236-page book without any sort of advance. Now let’s examine the quotes that have brought so much attention to this decorated Vietnam vet.

Here’s Hubbard on slavery:

“…the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.”

Hey, that’s not so bad, is it? Wonder what he thinks about segregation?

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We concluded that group leader and activist blogger Pamela Geller’s ultimate goal was to bring attention (both positive and negative) to herself and her militant pro-Israel cause.

Based on the public’s response, it would seem that she achieved her goal. But did she really get the result she wanted?

As soon as the announcement hit the news, a few city dwellers voiced their opposition to the group’s message. Then there was some drama involving a newly posted ad, a defender, and an antagonist armed with a can of spray paint:

The offender, an Egyptian-American journalist, was arrested and spent the night in jail for her “non-violent protest” while the group’s leader dismissed her as an “Islamic supremacist.” (This is a common refrain for Ms. Geller.)

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Whoops: Anti-Semitic Hungarian Politician Discovers He’s Jewish

Progressive Responds to Controversy, Still Looks Very Bad

RPatz to JStew: I Should’ve Hired a Publicist!

Smooth PR Move: Romney Campaigns with Convicted Drug Trafficker

Miley Cyrus and the PR Power of a Haircut

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Turns out that his grandmother survived Auschwitz and his grandfather spent time at several labor camps (!). continued…

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