Tucan Tucan

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Sambo's Sugar

In the Checkers grocery store Marcus and I went a little into culture shock when we saw the bags of sugar. I am certain people thought we were crazy, when Marcus scooped up the loose sugar from the shelf and rubbed it on his face to pose like the Oh So Happy, Degrading Sambo image on the sugar packages. It was so unbelievable that we were literally falling over ourselves laughing until we couldn't hold back the tears. There were store employees coming to aisle to see what was causing the commotion. Marcus later said it was funny that they could see how ridiculous it looked for him to paint his face with sugar and buck and shuffle but for some reason never questioned the image on the bag.

2 comments:

Marcus said...

Contrary to popular opinion, I was not submitting a headshot for my application to be their poster child.

At the time I was asking myself what message this company's brand is projecting.

I think I'll write the company and ask them that very question. If anyone wants to do the same, this particular sugar company can be reached via the following address:

Illovo Sugar, Ltd.
PO Box 194
Durban, South Africa 4000

Anonymous said...

As a sugar pitchman, Marcus makes an admirable Sambo. It's amazing that they went from obnoxious caricatures to ACTUAL MODELS. And the kid is cheesing all the way to the bank. Sigh. It must be disheartening to see an aisle of those grins staring back at you...