Posted on 10/25/2018 4:58:08 AM PDT by TigerClaws
In a surprising apology, Mountain Equipment Co-op, the Canadian outdoor apparel giant, admitted to helping advance the “vastly incorrect notion” that the outdoors is for white people only, criticizing decades worth of its own advertisements and catalogues for depending almost exclusively on white models to sell wares.
“Outside is for everyone,” MEC CEO David Labistour said in an open letter Monday. “It’s time we acted like it.”
The letter — titled “Do white people dominate the outdoors?” — includes a collage of old MEC ads: white people hiking and biking and rock climbing and cross-country skiing; white people in khaki shorts; white people rafting in wetsuits
It was an unorthodox move, since the apology wasn’t pre-empted by scandal — as has become the norm — but by quiet feedback, as well as an online survey of outdoor leisure and sport habits across the country, according to the company. In an interview Tuesday, Labistour said the tendency to use white models in advertising had “just been a traditional thing.”
“It’s how we grew up. It’s a historic part of our organization and the industry,” he said. “It’s been our industry paradigm. And it’s been, kind of, what we’ve always done. And sometimes we have to shift that paradigm.”
Monday’s apology was coupled with the unveiling of a new MEC “initiative,” bent on changing “the way we represent the outdoor community.” The move, MEC clarified in a statement, comes after employees and co-op members requested more diversity in the company’s ads.
“We know we’ve been part of the problem,” Labistour wrote. “This initiative isn’t about patting ourselves on the back. It’s also not about me, another straight white male with a voice in the outdoor industry.”
Labistour told the National Post that revamping advertising to feature more people of colour would help attract a more diverse workforce for MEC stores. “We have to be seen as a brand that represents the diversity of Canada in order to attract the diversity of Canada,” he said.
the advertisers who pretend that white people don’t exist (or are only 10% of the population/market) take my business for granted.
Nobody’s preventing black people from camping, hunting or other outdoor activities. It’s not uncommon to see black hunters, boaters and ATV riders in the south at least. I know the big ATV park down east in North Carolina, just about as redneck of a place as you could possibly imagine but great fun, has a fair number of black regulars and they’re quite welcome there, never mind the Confederate flags flying everywhere. This is yet another racial tempest in a teapot. What, are progressives going to go out and kidnap black people and force them to do things outdoors against their will just to make the numbers look pretty to them? Sheer idiocy.
Good point! When I first read the article I thought it makes no difference to me who is showing off a coat, pants or boots. I buy based on the description of the article not who is wearing it. If it works for me then OK, but now I will read more carefully.
On the topic of do whites own the outdoors, I suppose they do. As for me I go places where I don't see ANYBODY for 4-5 days, so I may be a bad gage. I can not think of what blacks do for outdoor recreation and exercise. Walking, nope. Running, nope. Biking, nope. Swimming, nope (I swam from Alcatraz to SF last month. 680 swimmers. Don't recall any blacks. But I wasn't really looking. I was more concerned with drowning.). Tennis, nope. Golf, nope. Skiing, maybe a few. Hiking, nope. Pick-up basketball, Ahhh... there ya go. But that is urban so maybe doesn't count.
Oh well, time to go for a walk.
Dump me in an inner city and I’d probably be just as terrified.
“...but there are lots of public parks out west, where a huge majority are largely Hipanic....By far, and away the huge majority.”
Odd. That doesn’t come close to my experience hiking in Utah and Arizona. Not even a tiny bit close. Of course, I don’t do genetic testing to each fellow hiker/tourist, and don’t know how many are 1/1,024th of a given race. And lots of hispanics look mighty white to a casual observer. But no way at all a “huge majority” are hispanic!
You forgot a 4th type; also white—my type—glamping and day hikes!
Ask Lewis and Clark
lands end and LL bean had catalogs this year with almost all black models.
I notice they reversed this trend for their holiday catalogs
Is that actually Ocra?
Illegals love the outdoors.
They treat it like it’s a big garbage can and giant toilet.
Man, the magazine National Geographic is so racist. Showing villages and other stuff in Africa all the time. /s
Those two were definitely out of their comfort zone but it was their duty to prove black people do go 'camping'.
And by 'camping' I mean something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing.
Yes — all that diversity in ads is getting to me. And what is the ratio of whites to blacks in the USA? Something like 70+% white to 13% black. Diversity? Nary an Asian to be seen.
These wouldn't be in large groups, moving south to north, would they?
TV ads use mostly Black actors or mixed couples ,been doing for a while now
It’s kind of true though - I race vintage, pre 1972 motorcycles and I’m a professional diver in southern calif - sadly, we don’t see that many black families participate in either sport, which is too bad because there’s an untapped source of experience, fellowship and of course dollars there.
I was talking about CA.
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