Post #778087 by creativenative on Sat, Jul 22, 2017 2:09 AM

I keep mentioning a separate commercial thread but at least these commercials are on TV. With talk about appropriation on other threads here is an ad that I feel crosses the line. In the new Honda 2017 Summerbration series one ad shows a hula bobber then widens to a white male, complete with a framer tan, in a female hula outfit (note the coconut bra top), with a plastic lei and strumming a ukulele??? Don't get what Honda is trying to say here. Is this funny to an average hula student, who spends hours a week trying to perfect their craft and traditions. There is a couple good looking big tikis in the scene but they are painted blue to go with the color theme of the scene. There has been many non-Polynesians in hula outfits, which can be construed as an American experience, and for fun many males have worn women's clothes (Milton Berle, Jamie Foxx)and even hula grass skirts and coconut bras and I think its funny also but this disturbs me and I can't explain why. Maybe because its not trying to be funny but again what is it trying to be?

Here is a screen shot. Wait a minute, is that a bar in the scene, a tiki bar?