Indicator history

The Swedish coffee brand Gevalia, broadcasted a TV commercial on several TV-Channels showing a black man, almost naked, performing a fictive soul artist, Jah Roast. The man comes out of the water and begins to sing while he wanders around among several half naked black women. The man makes some sort of dance while the choir sings "so dark, so deep" in the background. He is then struck by lightning and thus becomes a "roasted" black coffee bean. At the end, a male voice says in Swedish "exotic dark roasted coffee." The Face book group, ”Styrka!- Mot Rasism” (Strength!-Againts Racism) contacted Gevalia urging that it is racist, degrading and stereotypical of black people.[1] Gevalia decided to withdraw the racist commercial from all TV-Channels.[2]

The company, Swedish Games (Svenska Spel AB) was reported to the Advertisment Ombudsman (Reklamombudsmannen, RO) for broadcasting a commercial on several TV-Channels that was argued portrayed a stereotypical image of "Africans" as drifters, throwing trash around them, receiving old clothes from Sweden and behaving like children. The Advertisment Ombudsman decided to free the company Svenska Spel, explaining that the commercial did not voilate article 4 of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) rules for advertising and commercial marketing that forbids any form of discrimination, including that relating to race, nationality or descent.[3]