The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2013
Dunkin' Donuts Thailand's blackface doughnut ad got its CEO calling critics paranoid
Dunkin' Donuts Thailand ran a blackface doughnut ad. Its CEO called the backlash 'paranoid American thinking' — then the ad was pulled anyway.
Dunkin' Donuts · 2013-08
What happened
In August 2013, Dunkin' Donuts' Thailand franchise ran a print campaign for its new Charcoal Donut showing a smiling woman in blackface makeup, bright pink lipstick and a jet-black beehive hairstyle, holding up a bitten black doughnut.
Human rights groups called the ad's imagery a throwback to early-20th-century American blackface caricature and demanded its withdrawal. Dunkin' Donuts' Thailand CEO Nadim Salhani dismissed the criticism, calling it 'paranoid American thinking' and 'absolutely ridiculous.'
Dunkin' Brands' US headquarters overruled its local franchisee's defense: the company apologized for the campaign's 'insensitivity' and said it was working with the Thailand franchisee to 'immediately pull the ad.'
Why it happened
- A local executive's confidence that imagery reads differently at home doesn't survive contact with a global brand — the US parent stepped in exactly because the local and global reads diverged.
- Dismissing critics as parochial ('paranoid American thinking') before checking with headquarters turned a bad ad into a bad ad plus a public own-goal from the CEO defending it.
- The imagery didn't need American historical context to read as caricature — a smiling blackface figure selling a chocolate product hits the same visual grammar regardless of the market it's aimed at.
The lesson
Dunkin' Donuts Thailand ran a blackface doughnut ad and its local CEO called the backlash paranoid. Headquarters pulled the ad and apologized anyway.
Aftermath
The ad was withdrawn from Thai markets; Salhani's dismissive comments continued to circulate as a case study in how not to respond to a cultural-sensitivity complaint.
Sources
- Blackface Dunkin' Donuts ad in Thailand brings racism accusation — The Christian Science Monitor
- Dunkin' Donuts apologizes for 'racist' blackface ad campaign — Fox News
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