SPAIN BASKETBALL TEAM ADS: MEN’S and WOMEN’S
“We’re surprised by the remarks of racism,” said Juan Antonio Villanueva, the communications director for the city’s 2016 Olympic bid. “Spain is not a racist country — quite the opposite.”

Players on Spain’s Olympic basketball team are stepping up to defend the ad showing them using their fingers to apparently make their eyes look more Chinese. “It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way,” said Spain center Pau Gasol (Los Angeles Lakers). “I’m sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive.” Point guard Jose Manuel Calderon (Toronto Raptors) said the team was responding to a request from the photographer. “We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” Calderon said, “Without a doubt, some … press didn’t see it that way.”

SPAINS WOMENS BASKETBALL TEAM PHOTO: ON YES THEY DID

And now, we’ll have to wait and see how the world responds to the newly surfaced “ad” of Spain’s Women’s Basketball Team in the same pose.

Spain, as we know, has a bit of a racist reputation…Lewis Hamilton bore the brunt of it in Barcelona last February, as did Thierry Henry, and England’s ‘black’ players during a friendly in 2004 against Spain when Spanish fans taunted the players with “monkey sounds”.

Now, I’d like to think that something is lost in translation here. Advertising in Europe is a bit edgier than here in the States. Ever heard of ‘P*ssy’ Water? Pretty sure there would be a bit of controversy if it were released in the States. Most Euro advertising falls well outside our comfort zone. Most adverts outside of Spain are not so much ‘racist’ as they are ‘shocking’ to some. However, regardless of what Spain’s’ ‘intentions’ were with their basketball ads, I think with their history of offending some of the world’s top athletes, as well as most people living outside of their ‘culture’, that its entirely fair to label them as “racist’…

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Delinda Lombardo
delinda@athlebrities.com