Hanes "Tag" Ads Controversy

A controversial ad campaign by Hanes (developed for South Asia) featuring the words "faggot" and "nigger" and "paki" has drawn a lot of attention, criticism, and little actual theorization and critique. Much of the response has been purely "this is bad, bad, bad because using labels is bad, bad, bad because in this diverse, multicultural world we don't do things that are bad, bad, bad..." The campaign features the tagline "The world gives you enough tags." And the images are about the anthropomorphication of the discourse, stereotypes, and signifiers of the very labels themselves.



I think there is something going on here that might actually be disidentificatory, a way that unsettles the words (not completely) from their usage and that revivifies our relationship to them that might actually pull them out of the safe distance of history.



Granted these stereotypes are problematic and, well, stereotypical. But is there a way to not have a knee-jerk neoliberal reaction? And to find something productive out of the discomfort and eerieness produced by the ads? There is something posthuman going on here, too.

I'll have to think about it. Here's details: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/controv-campaigns-hanes.