Dear Chase Bank
As a cardholder I am distressed by the Chase ad, currently running on the Golf Channel, with an African American male at a gas pump, prancing around and jiving about how wonderful his Chase card is, while apparently too stupid to know which side of the car the gas tank is on.
Make no mistake, as an old white man I am glad to see a black actor featured in an Ad for a major financial institution. Especially since major banks are conspicuously absent from the historically black neighborhoods I drive through in Philadelphia.
But in this era of Black Lives Matter, to have that actor portray a stereotypical racist image of a drug dealer on Speed getting gas and being stupid is not only offensive but blatantly reinforces our worst and deepest instincts. I trust my reaction is not what Chase intended. It’s definitely NOT FUNNY.
—Neil Hoffmann
