Claim:   Advertisement for Heineken beer employs New Orleans "looter" imagery.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2005]

Got this pic via email from a friend and although it's funny and probably not a real Heineken ad, it started me thinking that hell, maybe it is real. Beer companies have done dumb things before.

Origins:   Familiar advertisements are commonly used as platforms for humor, as exemplified by the take-off on a print advertisement for Heineken brand beer displayed above. It isn't a real advertisement, but a spoof that plays on the brouhaha over media portrayals of looters in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and on the stereotype of blacks' eschewing (or being unable to afford) "regular" alcohol such as beer in favor of cheap malt liquor brands such as Colt 45 and Red Dog.

Last updated:   19 September 2005

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