Some people might have noticed something strange the other day as they watched that
Google ad during the
Super Bowl. When the invisible protagonist searches for "making friends," Google makes a number of suggestions: "making friends in college," "making friends in a new city," "making friends adults," and "making friends paper dolls." While we are concerned about the people searching for how to make friends with paper dolls, there is a more alarming problem: the omission of "making friends with black people."
When you search for "making friends" at Google, one of the top suggested queries is "making friends with black people." [Ed. Note: Also, apparently, Hitler.] Google apparently thought that might be offensive and cut the suggestion from the '
Parisian Love' search story.
So now this begs the question: does Google not want you to make friends with black people? [From:
AdFreak]
Update: It's been brought to our attention that the "making friends" search is not actually in 'Parisian Love' but another Search Stories video called 'High School.' It's also worth noting that '
High School' was posted in November of last year so it is possible that the auto-suggestions were accurate at the time. However it doesn't change the fact that the Search Stories videos; be it 'High School,' 'Parisian Love,' or any other, are not representative of
current Google results or suggestions.
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=543240&pid=543239&uts=1265819643
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
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Tags: advertising, google search, GoogleSearch, parisian love, ParisianLove, search, super bowl, SuperBowl, top
Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsJoe Papierz JrFeb 10th 2010 2:47PM
I would think a search of "making friends in NYC", "making friends in college", and "making friends adults" would include all races. Are you trying to tell us that somehow Google excluded Black people from the search results?
Terrence O'Brien, you go too far to stir up a controversy. Until you grow up or get old and die prejudice is alive in America. You are a sick puppy. See a doctor right away.
Platinum_SkeetFeb 10th 2010 2:23PM
You don't need goole. I'll be your friend!!! =D
dugandobFeb 10th 2010 2:38PM
That's funny. Will you be my friend too?
AriFeb 10th 2010 2:24PM
Umm, I don't think this exactly begs the question posed at the end of the post. That's just ridiculous. It probably would've gotten a lot more attention had it been included.
Kelsey TherkildsenFeb 10th 2010 2:39PM
If you refer to my blog at http://adfabwritings.blogspot.com/ you'll see that I too had my own opinions about this Google ad. However, my opinions centered on how creative it was and how much it portrayed males in such a positive manner. (When I say males, I mean of every color and nationality.)
Perhaps Google took it out because they felt it was offensive to think that it would take different methods and techniques to become "friends with black people" than it would with any other acquaintence. I agree that searching for "friends" doesn't exclude anyone, and this ad DEFINITELY does not beg the question of whether Google wants you to have black friends.
BIGALFeb 10th 2010 2:55PM
Why is it people of color say they want to be treated as equals, but, when they are not treated differently, and in this case special, they are upset. One would assume, a search for aduly friends would include all adults, and not exclude blacks, or any other race. Would the writer been happier had the ad said, "Searching for white friends, searching for black friends, searching for hispanic friends, etc."? The people that hold back minorities are their spoke people, not the rest of us.
KimFeb 10th 2010 3:20PM
Jeez, get a life!
happygoluckyFeb 10th 2010 3:22PM
Terrence O'Brien said Google left out "making friends with black people." Well, they left out: making friends with white people, making friends with yellow people, making friends with brown people, making friends with red people. Hey, if you include one, you should include them all. Since they didn't want to do that, they left them ALL out. Good for you Google. Terrence O'Brien, you are a s**t stirrer.
Leila BrillsonFeb 11th 2010 10:30AM
Yes, but the point is: that doesn't show up when you type in 'making friends with' into the Google search engine. The only one that appears is 'making friends with black people.' So get to searching how to befriend 'yellow', 'brown' etc. and it will begin to show up as a search suggestion.
Also, its supposed to be funny, guys. Ha.
RobertFeb 10th 2010 3:32PM
Jeeez people, they aren't saying that. Imagine all the things that come up when you enter certain words. The omitted that to be politically correct and not offend. Thats all, now move on and get lives or go on Facebook, your friends want to know what you've been doing the last fifteen minutes.
terrenceFeb 10th 2010 3:40PM
Guys, you all take things way too seriously.
JessFeb 10th 2010 4:31PM
having trouble getting a news worthy story? jeeze, this sounds like a desperate last minute article.The video doesn't even show a part where is says "making friends"
Celia MoormanFeb 10th 2010 3:53PM
My concern is not why google omitted "making friends with black people," but why someone searched this and decided it was a big deal to blog about it being excluded. As we "progress" into the future, we are "supposedly" steering further away from racism, reaching equality. If google had included "making friends with black people," the black community would have been outraged with claims of google and the world being racist. And yet, upon leaving it out, people are complaining? I bet it is those same people who feel BET, black scholarships, black colleges, black fraternities & sororities, and the many other exclusively black things are not racist and completely acceptable. I believe to each his own, but if there were to be a "White Entertainment" Channel, white scholarships, white colleges, etc., we'd hear all sorts of shouts of racism. So what is the problem? People will call anything racism. Whether you are trying to be politically correct or blatantly racist or not even at all. Equality won't exist until people stop making race a big deal. Google was excluding something that singled out a race, it wasn't a factual google search anyways, it was an ad. Ads aren't always truthful and they try and steer away from controversy. So why don't the people complaining that they didn't bring it, then you are racist.