Saturday, April 16, 2005

For All You Nogger Lovers

A Swedish rights group cried foul over advertisements for a liquorice ice-cream, saying the posters for "Nogger Black" were racist. Not only could the name of the ice-cream bar made by GB Glace cause offence, but the posters, with graffiti-style text, lampooned black culture, the Center Against Racism said. "The GB Glace company may not be racist, but the ads they use give new life to racist stereotypes," the campaigning group said in a statement. GB Glace, a part of Anglo-Dutch group Unilever, said it did not believe the ice-cream, or its advertising, was racist. However, it was considering withdrawing another advertising campaign due in May. "Even if the word 'black' in the logo is inspired by graffiti, we don't see anything wrong with that, nor about alluding to black culture or hip-hop," GB Glace spokeswoman Petronella Warg said. "We certainly had no intention that the name, 'Nogger', would be associated with any negative word." A chocolate version of the Nogger ice cream, with a nougat center, has been on sale in Sweden for decades.