Brand Marketing Ancestry.com Pulls Tone-Deaf Ad That Romanticizes Why Black Americans Have White Lineage The spot doesn't take enslavement and rape into accountBy Lindsay Rittenhouse|April 19, 2019 The ad from Anomaly imagines a white gentleman trying to convince a black woman to run away with him.Ancestry.comShare By Lindsay Rittenhouse|April 19, 2019 Share It’s just another day in advertising and another example of a tone-deaf ad that likely would have never been approved had there been more people of color with significant sway on the matter. Ancestry.com has pulled an ad that romanticized the reason why so many black Americans have white ancestry. (The biggest reason is rape.) The ad, which is called “Inseparable” and is from Anomaly, is set in the 1800s and imagines a white gentleman trying to convince a black woman he is supposedly in love with to run away with him to Canada (as if white men in America at the time weren’t enslaving and raping black women and trying to dismantle the Underground Railroad that freed thousands of slaves). ooooh my god LMAOOO who approved this ancestry commercial??? pic.twitter.com/Isy0k4HTMA— manny (@mannyfidel) April 18, 2019 The ad ran online this month and was broadcast on cable networks in Utah, where the online genealogy company is based, before The Salt Lake Tribune reported on it, prompting the brand to pull it from YouTube. “Ancestry is committed to telling important stories from history,” an Ancestry.com spokeswoman said in a statement. “This ad was intended to represent one of those stories. We very much appreciate the feedback we have received and apologize for any offense that the ad may have caused. We are in the process of pulling the ad from television and have removed it from YouTube.” The spokeswoman declined to say how many people of color were involved in making the ad, which was was created by Anomaly’s Toronto office. The agency deferred comment to the client. The ad garnered considerable backlash from viewers who pointed out how offensively unrealistic it is along with other insensitive aspects such as how the white male character interrupts the black woman when she tries to speak (arguably the only realistic part of the spot). The ad is about Abigail and her family line, yet she doesn't speak. I see the white man, I hear his words, and know his drives. She is merely an object to further his story. https://t.co/z4kQwcN8GJ reminded me of every history book's Black last paragraph. No other stories told. https://t.co/AdL9WZl45x — ???????????????? (@CharKiNte) April 19, 2019 Others have noted how the ad parallels other white savior tales, from the recent controversial Academy Award-winning Green Book to To Kill a Mockingbird. Business Insider producer Manny Fidel explained the origin of white savior stories and detailed why they are so unrealistic and problematic in a video posted to his Twitter account in response to the Ancestry.com spot. "white savior" movies like Green Book are extremely not good! lemme explain:pic.twitter.com/IEC4XODlza— manny (@mannyfidel) March 5, 2019 Here’s hoping change one day comes to the advertising industry. Fucking sick. Our ancestors were raped , wasnt no love , wasnt no slave master running uo north with an enslaved Black woman. Yall see how they rewrite history. This is Propaganda. https://t.co/Ka1Qw73SFc— Jeremiah Hudson (@HudsTV) April 19, 2019 Adweek Adweek