UPDATED: P&G's Bounty Ad Contains Unintentional Gang Reference
A new TV ad for Procter & Gamble’s Bounty Extra Soft paper towel brand contains an inadvertent shout-out to the Crips, the deadly street gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1970s and which continues to ruin urban neighborhoods across the U.S (see video below).
The commercial, from Publicis, shows a family with two young children getting ready to watch a big game on the TV. The kids decide to paint their faces in support of their team. They daub blue paint on their right cheeks. When mom sees them, she says:
Guys! The blue goes on the left!
That statement will raise some eyebrows in gang-infested neighborhoods, as wearing blue on the left side of your body is a sign you’re a Crip. In the song Drop It Like It’s Hot, Snoop Dogg — a well-known Crip — raps:
I’m a gangsta, but y’all knew that
Da Big Bo$$ Dogg, yeah I had to do that
I keep a blue flag hanging out my backside
But only on the left side, yeah that’s the Crip side
Increased Bounty sales among Crips — perhaps to clean off the sidewalks following drive-bys — will likely be offset by a corresponding decline in sales among rival gang the Bloods, for whom red is worn on the right.
(Thanks to Carol Lubick, graphic specialist at ERGObaby!, for locating this video.)
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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