Heineken admits it 'missed the mark' with 'terribly racist' advert

Heineken has admitted that it "missed the mark" on its latest advert, which has been labelled "terribly racist" by Chance the Rapper.

The Chicago musician took to Twitter and criticised the campaign for its tag line, which is “sometimes, lighter is better”.

The ad in question shows a bartender who sees a woman across a rooftop bar. He opens a Heineken beer and slides the beverage past a black woman and an older black man before landing near the hand of the woman he spotted. The narrator says "sometimes, lighter is better".

A spokesperson for Heineken told indy100 in an email:

For decades, Heineken has developed diverse marketing that shows there’s more that unites us than divides us.

While we feel the ad is referencing our Heineken Light beer—we missed the mark, are taking the feedback to heart and will use this to influence future campaigns.

Chance’s comment comes off the back of a type of discrimination darker-skinned men and women can face: Colourism links the idea of power and privilege to a particular skin tone – in this case, the idea that lighter skin is more acceptable and thus more desirable than darker skin.

This type of discrimination has existed in many parts of the world, from Apartheid South Africa, where lighter-skinned South Africans were given privileges over their darker-skinned counterparts, to India where skin-lightening creams are prevalent because lighter skin is perceived to be more attractive.

It also rears its ugly head in the music industry. Beyoncé’s dad recently came out to condemn the record industry for what he perceives as discrimination against dark-skinned musicians.

However, not everyone agrees with Chance’s statement, and argue Heineken is simply advertising what it is – a light beer.

This article has been updated to include Heineken's response.

More: Trump supporter punched in the face after hurling racist abuse at Korean woman

More: Drunk people are more racist and homophobic, study finds