Revs. Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson Forced Cadbury to Issue Apology Over Advert Comparing Chocolate Bliss Product to Naomi Campbell

Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson forced Cadbury to issue apology to supermodel Naomi Campbell with the threat of a boycott over advert comparing new chocolate product to the diva.

Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were instrumental in forcing Cadbury to issue an apology to supermodel Naomi Campbell after she called for a boycott as a result of the company comparing her to their new chocolate Bliss product in an advertisement. Not sure what race row they are referring to because I don't think the outrage was ever widespread in the U.S., where Campbell has a reputation of being a real diva, who has been cited for abusive behavior towards her housekeepers. In any case, I won't throw Sharpton under a bus, since both he and Jackson were asked to lend their support to the boycott, but I will say, there have been so many incidents that have occurred in this country that they could have lent their support and they remained largely silent. Seems a little disingenuous to scream racism over a chocolate bar advertisement and ignore the actions of an assistant principal, Angela Peagler, at a Chicago public school, who denied two little black brothers -- Noah and Niko Nicholson -- lunch because they didn't have on the right shoes. Where's was the outrage from Jesse Jackson specifically, since that occurred in his backyard?

Mr Sharpton waded into the dispute, which had raised the prospect of a consumer boycott and legal action from Campbell, after it was first highlighted by The Independent on Sunday last week. The American Baptist minister raised the issue on his radio talk show, referring to Cadbury's advertisement for its Bliss range of Dairy Milk chocolate bars, which said "Move over Naomi – there is a new diva in town". Cadbury is owned by the US food giant Kraft.

The UK-based campaign group Operation Black Vote (OBV), which helped to kickstart the protest against Cadbury, wrote to Mr Sharpton to ask him to lend his support. OBV's Simon Woolley, a guest on Sharpton's radio show last week, said yesterday: "This shows that our communities have clout. The story went way beyond the UK. For African Americans, this was a no-brainer. According to Sharpton, the only way to deal with [issues like this] is to have an African diaspora that supports each other."

Tamrika Mallory, executive director of Mr Sharpton's civil rights campaign group National Action Network, said: "The reverend felt this was deeply offensive. Naomi is an icon and has worked very hard, so to be compared to food or an object is offensive." She added that the race row was bigger than just one distasteful advertisement. "It's yet another example of corporate insensitivity towards minorities, and proof that advertising rooms are still largely devoid of diversity." Source: Telegraph

I hope Revs. Sharpton and Jackson will step up to the plate when the so-called name-calling and derision is directed at an ordinary black person on the street. Funny how we haven't heard peep out of them on the controversy surrounding the depiction of murder and violence in Rihanna's new video. What if that was a Taylor Swift video? Oh wait, that involves a black person shooting another black person, so that doesn't count in their eyes. Better  yet, we haven't heard peep out of them questioning why the U.S. Department of State revoked the visitors' visas of energy minister James Robertson and his wife. Robertson has since resigned his position. Need I go on?

I don't believe for a second Cadbury was being racist. There is a terrible double-standard in the black community and among the so-called black leaders that says "do as I say, but not as I do." It's okay for us to call the late R&B crooner Teddy Pendergrass "chocolate teddy bear" but a white person or establishment who dares to use the word chocolate in a sentence about a black person is right away condemned as racist and calls for a boycott ensue. You will recall back in 1979 during Pendergrass' "women only" concerts, attendees were given chocolate teddy-bear shaped lollipops. Can't recall hearing reading about any outrage from these two so-called civil rights leaders.  Wait, when former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said he wanted to create New Orleans as a chocolate city in the rebuilding of the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I didn't hear a word out of both men. Did you? Or NPR's Alex Kellogg calling Washington D.C. a "Chocolate City," in his commentary about the black exodus and it becoming more vanilla as a result. Where were the Sharpton-Jackson tag team then? Even blacks who lived in Washington D.C. regularly referred to the city as just that, "chocolate city."

In closing, Naomi Campbell may have made contributions to the world of fashion, but her shenanigans off the runway leave little to be desired and little to admire her for. Was she the victim of racism? No. I believe they used her name because of her diva-ish behavior and the temper tantrums she is known to throw where her hired help is concerned. Next time Naomi Campbell needs to take a long look at herself and take stock of her behavior first when she's called a name before screaming racism. If we are going to force others to be politically correct and watch the words they use when talking about blacks, then we must be politically correct and exercise the same level of caution when talking about whites and other racial backgrounds.