"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.

On random selection alone, you'd need to have a sample of 10 children before you expected to see a child who wasn't white.
Ehh, not quite =/
But it's not really relevant to the discussion =P No one really cares about the ins and outs of probability, sadly.

I do see why you're questioning this OP, as photos were required from the first for a valid entry

Yes they would have found out at the photo-shoot, but it would be quite inconvenient to only find out at that stage. If the photos are required at some stage, it makes sense to request them on entry so there's no problems trying to get hold of them on time, maybe finding out they're not suitable for some reason etc etc.

If you don't agree with that system, or think it introduces bias (which to some extent it probably does!) then you could write to them. Or just not enter. In fact this aspect of it is probably a valid point to discuss.

But there is absolutely no justification for suggesting that the judges or the company are racist, that is just completely bizarre, and eclipses any reasonable point you might otherwise have made.

Thinking about it, these are very young children it would probably not be considered wise to publish their full names on the internet. Just posting their names and ages wouldn't give them anything to show off. Having the pictures there makes them identifiable.

Sunscorch Thats according to the last census which reports over 90% white population in the UK.

I appreciate the numbers will have changed since then, but not so dramatically that a sample of 6 couldn't realistically be all white (even if selected at random).

Maybe they were the only ones who entered? This competition wasn't very well advertised.

It is relevant to the discussion. Discrimination becomes more and more possible/probably when stats involving selection are skewed from demographic stats.

For example, if the population is roughly 50% male, 50% female... then a workplace with 49% male, 51% female would be roughly similar and unlikely to be discriminatory.

Get a workplace with 90% male, 10% female however, and it becomes worth closer examining (although even then, discrimination may not be the basis).

Its the same with ethnicity. A sample of 6 children in a predominantly white country could be expected to be all white. A sample of 15 however would become a different story, and would probably justify a closer look.

Wow, you can find "racism" everywhere if you look hard enough.

Op you know there are people who really suffer the effects of racism and ridiculous threads like this make a mockery of a serious issue.

Who actually sits down and goes to all this effort because 6 white children won a competition?

My DCs are mixed race- I would hate for them to win a contest, not on merit but because they needed an "ethnic minority"
What is that teaching children? It's ok if you are not good enough to win, we need a token dark skinned person so you can win.

Might I suggest that your time would be better spent actually doing something constructive?
Oooh, how about mystery shopping??
Then you can bring down the big corporations for not having enough black employees!
alternatively I hear pot holing is an interesting hobby for people with way too much time on their hands

I agree with tantrums. I also have a black DH and mixed race children, and I think crying racism constantly where there is no real evidence of any is like crying wolf.

People start to take the real thing less seriously. And that is a problem.

Sorry I just re read your OP

YOU CONTACTED THE COMPANY

WTAF??

Did they laugh?

Its the same with ethnicity. A sample of 6 children in a predominantly white country could be expected to be all white. A sample of 15 however would become a different story, and would probably justify a closer look.

I don't think you've quite grasped my point. I wasn't terribly clear.

I'm not disputing the 90% figure, although it is certainly out of date. I'm disputing the fact that you would need to see a sample of ten children before "expecting" a non-white.

It depends entirely on the population size relative to the sample:

If I had a bag of ten marbles, for example, at the 90% white proportion, then I'd definitely get a representative sample of ten.
If I had a bag of twenty marbles, I'd still be quite likely to get a representative sample of ten.
If I had a bag of a million marbles, the chance of getting my representative sample decreases dramatically.

RedApple as a previous poster said....OFTEN in competitions of this nature, a photo will be requested upon entry so as to avoid the company having to chase for one at a later dat. End of....

I agree Sunscorch, although I'm trying to keep it fairly basic.

What I'm saying (and perhaps should have worded better) is that a sample of 6 children all being white when the possible selection pool is over 90% white is more likely to be all white than anything else (based on random selection).

I'm not saying the sample is bound to be a close representation, just more likely.

I'm another with a black DH and mixed race children.

This is ridiculous. Those children were clearly not judged on their looks, or at least if they were I can't imagine who on earth applied. I understand all children are beautiful bla bla bla but be realistic they wouldn't have won any modelling competitions.

Racism is a very serious and destructive problem which despite what some people thin does still exist a lot today but highlighting things which are complete non-issues like this just devalues genuine incidents.

Answer the question RedApple, Would you rather a black/mixed race/Asian child were chosen and exploited because Ferrero did not want to seem racist rather than they had won fairly?

These are little kids in a relatively unknown competition who won because they had good ideas, That's all. The fact that you think they won simply because they are white is really sad, For them and for you.

How can you see something as evil as racism here?

Maybe what the original poster means was that they were not acting in a racist manner but were not being overly cautious with the skin colour of the children they selected so as not to upset people with too much time on their hands the pc brigade??

Also that's my dd who won

not really but wouldn't that make for a massive bun fight???

This is the kid they used to use to promote those Kinder snacks: www.ferrero.co.uk/

Of the six new winning faces, five are cut from the same cloth and apparently, photos weren't used as part of the judgement criteria?

What a stroke of luck that must have been for the judges.

The faces all have character about them.

RedApple11 Would you think there was something racist going on if 6 winning children for a contest in Ghana were all black?

So, since you think they're racist, what are you going to do about it?

Because bitching on here is achieving nothing.

So what do you think happened?

Im with pp's who say that all children are beautiful, but tbh there were surely some white children who were more beautiful than the chosen 6.

How DO YOU think they selected them? honestly how?

Incidentally, part of the 'prize' was a photo shoot so a photo entry wasn't necessary since Kinder's photographers would be taking their own pics for the promotion.

Do you have a problem with white people RedApple?

Sorry but someone had to say it, Yes a caucasian boy is on the packaging of Kinder chocolate what's wrong with that?

I don't find Uncle Ben products racist.