Car Commercials and Primitive Peoples

It could have been just another dull TV ad featuring an Inca boy, Maori warriors, or Maasai dancers–heck, why not throw them all in there–and filed as such in the archives of car-plows-through-exotic-river-bed commercials.

But then we find out through this making-of clip “no Indian was hurt during the shoot” (around the 3:00 mark: “…nenhum índio foi ferido na filmagem”). So, now this commercial becomes something else. It becomes a reminder of Brazil’s past and present fraught with racial discrimination and we forget what the ad was trying to sell.

Further Reading

Whose progress?

A new documentary reveals how Ethiopia’s manufacturing push redistributes land, labor, and opportunity—delivering gains for some while displacing others.