"New Face of Ferrero" competition - only white children should apply?

[RedApple11]

Just bought a pack of Ferrero treats for my DD and was shocked at what looks like a blatantly discriminatory campaign. The new "Faces of Ferrero" (ie, the winning children whose images will be used to promote Ferrero products) are all white and fair featured. Five boys, one girls. Are only fair white children attractive enough to be the Face of Ferrero then?

I contacted Ferrero about this and was told:

"We would like to stress that the competition was judged purely on the basis of the children's responses to the question which was: "what they want to be when they grow up and why?".

So I investigated further and discovered that actually, what a crock that was. In fact, all entrants were required to upload their children's photos in order to have a valid entry and these images were then displayed in a gallery. See www.faceofkinder.com/terms.php and scroll down to section 9.3 which states:

"The photograph must have been taken within the last 6 months before it is sent as an entry in the competition. The child must be fully clothed. Whilst entrants may crop and enlarge photographs, they must not submit a photograph which has been substantially altered. By entering into the competition, the entrant agrees that the promoter can visit the child to check that the photograph is an accurate representation of him or her. No changes will be permitted to photographs accepted into the Gallery after the voting period opens on 30th May."

Anyway, the wonderfully white and photogenic winners can all be found here: www.faceofkinder.com/gallery.php

Don't get me wrong, these kids are all gorgeous and this isn't sour grapes - I had no idea about this competition and wouldn't have entered my DD into it anyway.

That said, I think it's outragous that in this day and age, a company like Ferrero can get away with promoting the idea that only fair white children are attractive enough to be the Face of Ferrero. This seems wrong on so many levels.

there you go... it will probably be won by the child with the most persistent parents.

As a basis for comparison, Ghana has a population that is just over 90% black.

Would you find it worrying if 6 contest-winning children from Ghana were all black?

FFA, get a grip op. let's tackle real racism not something you've dreamt up

it no doubt will be

but i still think advertising (or the choice of it in this case) should represent the whole of our society and that really all compainies responsibility to do that

so who should have won Freud and I really mean that as a question. 5 white and one black child?

In order to represent the whole of our society, it would have to actually use every single person's face on its advertisement.

If you mean a sample should be proportionately representative, then 6 out of 6 children being white is representative.

Or one black, one white, one asian, one oriental child, a mixed race child and a lucky dip????

That would be very disproprtionate indeed, and would certainly be vastly more likely to indicate choices made solely on skin colour which is wrong.

PLUS the children would have to be 'sorted' into groups of skin colour before judging...and of course that would be discriminatory or promote ideas of segregation would it ??

I think thats what really makes me angry about this thread. People are actually advocating people being carefully sorted into little racial piles, and complaining that this isn't being done!

I know!!!! Screw that!!! Stop seeing people as a colour and start seeing people. I genuinely HATE this bollocks

well what is wrong with having a children or two within the six that is not white?

i think all advertising should represent our whole society is that so wrong

Because as you are being told over and over again, 6 out of 6 children all being white is perfectly representative in this country.

Either you have a counter-argument to that, or you are just ignoring the point because you don't have an answer.

Also, by implying that there should be a child or two within the six that are non-white (which actually would be disproportionate), you are saying that some children should be chosen deliberately for their skin colour.

That is wrong, and abhorrent, and racially discriminatory.

It would be exploiting the child/children in question as they were chosen because the colour of their skin and not their efforts in the competition so that Ferrero seem "diverse".

I dont think thatisall is saying they should be I think its a tongue in cheek at the abusrdity of possible positive discrimiation just to reassure some people that racial discrimuination is not taking place

sometimes people see things that just are not there.

Many many years ago I was accused of racism by a junior nurse when I remonstrated with her when she had not carried out some basic care I asked her to do for an elderly patient ... she said I was "getting at her" cos I was colour prejudiced because she was black. errmmm what she did not know is my BF was even darker than her ... that shot her boat out of the water !

tazzle just in case that was directed at me (I know it may not have been, but on reflection, my subsequent post looks like it was directed at her), I agree with her point, and am also angry at the absurdity of it all. :)

"well what is wrong with having a children or two within the six that is not white?"

Nothing at all Freud, there IS something fundamentally wrong with actively seeking out 1, 2, 3 etc black/asian/mixed race etc children, can you really not see why that would be wrong?

fyi, i knew none of it was directed at me....cos none of you beauts see racism where it doesn't exist!

But cheers tazzle :-)

i do have an answer this company is advertising to the whole of our country, 10% of our population are not white

if one person feels that because of the colour of their skin they have not been included in a marketing campaign that is aimed at use all then that is one person too many. no one may feel like that but the risk is there when the choice is only to pick a white child especially when 10% of our population is not white

i just think it was badly thought out, i have not used the word racist claimed it was a white supremacy group behind the competition just a little more awareness from companies should be expected in this day and age

lol whiteshores..... problem is by the time I finished typing and pressed post there had been about 6 at least more posts ..... which puts things out of context

"only white children should apply." Why invent something that they never actually said?

The bizarre thing is that the people complaining on this thread aren't even fighting racist behaviour, they're supporting it by saying people should be chosen based on skin colour.

Thats the most offensive thing on this thread!

Yes Freud, and do you know what 10% of 6 children is... less than one!!!

That means to have an accurately proportionate sample, all six of those children would be expected to be white.

Freud Im sure the ambassador thanks the op for making kinder aware that they upset every none white child in this country with their distasteful competition