"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.

If you ask the Scouts for pictures to illustrate a feature or news story about Scouts they ALWAYS send pictures of girls. In my experience. In the mag I worked for it was getting so that it looked like the Scouts was an all-girl organisation.

Well I think its ageist!
Who do I complain to?

I just don't think that because you see a child of a particular race/ethnicity/religion you can automatically assume that every other race/ethnicity/religion is being discriminated against.

That's all.

And on the link you provided, it clearly says

The judging criteria will be based on the child's response to 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' and their reason. The creativity and uniqueness of response will form the basis of the judging criteria. For the avoidance of doubt, it is the creativity of the reason that will be the judged element.

Under section 6.

Allo pimp.

I also think that Andrex is discriminating to cats
Dolmio to non-Italians
etc etc

This is the funniest thread!

Not only is there a massive photo of a boy who is from an ethnic minority on their FRONT page but as it turns out, this wasn't a beauty contest at all!

Andrex is racist. Have you noticed what colour the puppies are?!!

If Ferrero is so inclusive and it's just a coincidence that the 'winning' kids are all gorgeous white children, why does the main corporate website feature only white people when images of people/children are used? There are plenty of stock photos out there that this company could have used for their site but they picked white folk: www.ferrero.co.uk/

Is it wrong to be outraged that a company that targets children has picked another six white children (and yes, mostly boys) to promote their brand. Does only white skin = beauty?

Eh? There's loads of minority photos fgs.

RedApple11, look at the mahoosive photo on the front page. Tell me, is that boy white?

Dear me OP - you are banging on like an unhinged loon. I think you'll have to look long and hard to find anyone - here, at least - who'd agree that only white skin = beauty. What an absurd concept.

Just suppose the winner had been a black child. Whatever would you have done then?

I'm sorry your child was rejected btw. Sad times!

All them pore ole green apples. Your nn is offensively discriminatory OP.

I wouldn't have even thought of the colour. Are they supposed to pick 1x white kid, 1 x asian, 1x chinese etc just to avoid offending anyone?? You are being ridiculous and paranoid OP.

Ferrero Rocher aren't white...

Not only that, but they'd have to have far more than 6 children if they were to proportionally represent all children/races.

what Folkgirl said.

Also can i say that onions like the op 's cause more racism as they force us to consider skin colour even when it isn't and shouldn't be relevant.

I'll say again: if these 6 were the best. how disgusting would it have been if the judges sat in a board room and said...'mmm lets drop the little one in the cowboy hat and use a child with dark skin instead...just so some unhinged poster on Mumsnet doesn't get their back up'. Wouldn't that be discriminatory towards the little cowboy???

I just made a Nutella sandwich. Noma nom.

Come now everyone, Stop kinder egging the OP on.

was it on white or brown bread?

50/50

I think it's discriminating based on the fact "the face of" is judged on an answer to a question. My DCs will never win because I would never subject them to it because although people faint at the sight of their beauty the all want to grow up to be is a Greggs sausage roll testers.

What about children who suffer from dylexia or other disabilities that make it difficult for them to write in ?

Purple how wonderfully pc of you

hathor good point!

And where is the Ambassador? Won't anyone think of the Ambassador?