"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.

To ask for a photo upload meant the photo had to have been required for the competition or else why ask for it? Therefore it was part of the judgement criteria and so the notion that this competition was soley based on creativity is a lie. That was what my original post was about.

Having a photo uploaded beforehand does not mean it was necessarily part of the judgement criteria.

It may have been an entry requirement... as in some sort of proof that the applicant was a child.

Past satisfying entry requirements, it is entirely feasible that the judgement process was based solely on creativity.

And as I've been saying, even if the photos were used as judgement criteria, they were still likely to be white children (by a huge majority), and so likewise the winners were more likely to be white.

The photos were more than likely needed to display the winners on the website. Same as last year... When an Asian and black child also won.

"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."

Oh god really?

Ok, let's try this shall we.

It isn't seen as appropriate to display children's full names on the internet, so the most they could (and did) do is show first name and age.

Without the photos they could be referring to any children, rather than those specific 6.

Now if you were a young child you'd probably quite like to see some acknowledgement that you'd won, seeing your name and age wouldn't be half as impressive as seeing your photo on a website would it? You'd also probably like to see this sooner rather than later.

If they had to wait till after the photoshoot, that's likely to be a bit of a wait. So if you were the company organising things with that in mind, would you,
a) ask for photos with the applications?
b) chase up the winners for photos after the competition closed*?

*Risking them not having any photos to hand and having to delay putting photos up. Because you could hardly put up 5 photos and leave one child's photo blank.

I've had enough. Do you know what you sound like to me....you sound like a racist!

The way you have poked and prodded at the nature of this CHILDREN's competition is disgusting.
The way you have described the appearance of these children is uncalled for.
The way you ignore valid points of ratios of white to non-white people in this country, frankly smacks of bigotry.

I have seen many, many competitions which ask for a photo. They ask for this so that they can immediately announce winners rather than waiting for an image. An image is a nice boasting opportunity of rthe children's families.

I would be more angry if I found out that a child missed out on winning because they were white and because the company needed a 'token' child of colour. That would be racist, but that seems to be what you believe should have happened.

You belittle real racists issues with your insistence on this as a 'racist competition'.

Those poor children, being discussed this way. How dare you?

I agree thatisall. I don't want my own gorgeous dark-skinned child (and child on the way) to be seen as 'tokens' for people to make themselves feel not racist.

They are individuals, and there is so much more to them than the colour of their skin.

Well, Kinder say they conducted their selection of six, from fifty, solely on creativity. The great British public apparently looked at the 5000, and 4950+ (using the OP's numbers) didn't make it, for whatever reasons. If racism played a part, it would have played a part there, and not at stage 2, which was conducted by Kinder's panel.

I'd be willing to bet a year's salary that the vast majority of the losers were also white.

just wondering here, if the photos had not been sent in first and the winners chosen just on what they wrote in, then when they turned up for photos all were white.... would the op call racism? would she expect them to say oops sorry no you haven't won we need someone black, or oops sorry you are black you haven't won we are promoting white as beautiful.

Hmm. Let me throw in a thought.

The Milky Bar Kid.

whiteshores I'll add mine to that

Red apple, you realize how you sound?
I'm struggling to imagine how you think this competition should be judged, should they have segregated the white, black, Asian etc children and judged them separately? Would that be more racist acceptable?

Not too sure where you would put the mixed race children, maybe they have a category of their own?!

If this was a Chinese company, and the Competion entrants all came from china, would you be up in arms that "only chinese people are beautiful enough to be the face of x, where are the white, black, Indian etc children??

I'm actually baffled :(

chippy they just stuck to a ooh with that...never had a girl or a dark haired white child either...just looky likes of the original

like all the Mr.Muscles over the years

has OP left the building?

Yes, if there were no photos and 6 children of the same race turned up, 5 should immediately be sent home!
That would be better wouldn't it OP?

The Milky Bar Kid.

Is a character who is white.
So what?

Should 10% of all depictions of individual characters be ethnically adjusted? Should Superman be black once in every ten panels of a comic book? Should the cast of Eastenders be digitally altered to be a random race every few weeks?

The milky bar kids were just look a likes, it's not racist cos he is always white, or sexist cos he is a boy or hairist (I just made that up) cos he is blond, or eyeist(really reaching now) cos he had glasses.

:) at superman changing from white, to black, to Asian etc on each page :)

The milky bar kid also always had glasses. Massively offensive to all those with 20:20 vision.

As an aside, I always thought it was a bit unfortunate that such a fair-skinned child lived under the scorching sun of the wild west. His parents must've spent a fortune on sun block.

Its a bit like the character 'Aunt Jemima' used for various products. They haven't actually had any actresses play her on commercials (that I'm aware of), but if they did, I think its safe to say they wouldn't choose a white, blonde kid.

I think the OP has gone. Probably eating her ferrerro richer grumbling 'racist bitches'

arrgh!! bloody auto correct!! You knew what I meant!

:)

Wow, I'd love some ferrerro richer. Does it actually do what it says on the packet?