Look at the source and don't take it personal

A few days ago, my friend Sascha showed this ad to me:


This is a Russian ad for an ice-cream product; their slogan is: "Everyone's talking about it: dark inside white!" Is this racist?
I wouldn't say so. Different countries have different cultures and beliefs. I'm sure it is okay in Russia to talk about skin color, an American social taboo, or the agency responsible for this ad would have never approved it.

My experience says that other countries accept comments about race. For example, in Mexico we don't have a big foreign population, so making jokes about "different" people is okay. Look at this video: It's an ad for a big cookie company in Mexico. The grandma says, "is the little Chinese adopted?" The grandma shows how it is okay to refer to the boy as "the Chinese" even though we don't really know where he is actually is from. Her comment also shows that our population is not taught to respect other ethnicities like they do here in the US.

So, next time you see a foreign ad and you feel offended by it, don't take it personal; it probably wasn't even targeted to you. Remember that many people out there weren't brought up the same way you were.