A new campaign, confronting racism in football, is set to hit television screens for the first time later this month.
The public awareness commercial, titled ‘Dear White Fella’ was produced by M&C Saatchi and incorporates the ‘kick racism out’ slogan - a motto popularised by a campaign started in 1993 by the Commission for Racial Equality and the Professional Footballers' Association. The campaign, due to run on satellite television from Christmas Day, aims to challenge viewers by questioning attitudes to racial stereotyping.
The advert breaks at a crucial time in British football when the game has been dogged by accusations of racism. Most notably, the recent court case involving Leeds Utd footballers Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, who were both cleared of causing grievous bodily harm to an Asian student, made TV headlines. Meanwhile, an Asian referee recently claimed that his application to referee Premiership matches was turned down because of his colour.
The commercial is built upon a popularised poem narrated by Benjamin Zephaniah, whose source remains unknown. The poem deconstructs the concept of colour by reconstructing the white person as essentially ‘coloured.’ The film pinpoints various life stages of a football-loving black person and in all of these instances the poem explains that his skin remains black. The poem contrasts this with a white football fan whose skin colour changes when he is cold, frightened or sick. The advert concludes with the narrator saying, "And you have the cheek to call me coloured," as the anti-racism slogan appears.
Jerry Gallaher, copywriter at M&C Saatchi and one of the people behind the advert said: "We believe the advert will be hard-hitting because it is unique. We didn’t want to go down the obvious route which would have been to invite famous black footballers to speak about their experiences on camera. We wanted to straddle both racism in football and racism in general so the advert could speak to a wider demographic."
However, it is not the first time the poem has been used in film production. A quick rummage through the shots archive revealed that a music video, using a version of the same poem, was produced five years ago by the Parisian outlet Bandits for Logic Records. (which is featured in shots 38, Dec, 1996.) Shots.net asked Gallaher whether he was aware of this: "It has not been drawn to my attention until now but I would say that the poem is ubiquitous and there are countless versions of it. We found it on the internet and thought it was the best way to put across a simple but poignant message."
The commercial was directed by Chris Palmer through Gorgeous Productions.
