Heineken retracts commercial after racism accusations

Dutch beer giant Heineken decided to retract a commercial after Chance the Rapper called the campaign slogan "sometimes, lighter is better" racist.

"Although we find the commercial refers to our Heineken Light beer, we have missed the mark and we take the feedback to heart', Heineken said in a statement, RTL Nieuws reports. "We will take this into account n the development of our future campaigns."

Heineken Light is a brew for the foreign market that contains fewer calories and less alcohol. In the commercial, which can be seen at the bottom of this article, a barman spots an apparently thirsty woman at the end of the bar with binoculars. He opens a light beer and slides it towards her. The beer slides past a number of dark skin people before ending up with the woman at the end of the bar, at which point the slogan "sometimes lighter is better" appears on the screen.

On Twitter Chicago based rapper Chance the Rapper wrote that he hesitated about drawing attention to this commercial. "I think sometimes companies are purposely putting out noticeably racist ads so they can get more views", he wrote. "But I gotta say tho. The 'sometimes lighter is better' Heineken commercial is terribly racist." He got a lot of support from other Twitter users. 

I think some companies are purposely putting out noticably racist ads so they can get more views. And that shit racist/bogus so I guess I shouldn’t help by posting about it. But 😂 I gotta just say tho. The “sometimes lighter is better” Hienekin commercial is terribly racist omg

— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) March 26, 2018