FRITO BANDITO
"He loves CRONCHY Fritos corn chips so much he'll stop at nothing to get yours. What's more, he's cunning, clever-- and sneaky!
He's a theiving, gun toting, Sobrero wearing, mustache sporting man hailing from South of the Border whom Frito Lay advitisers believed would persuade consumers that Frito Lay chip brands were ideal for them. Attacking the Mexican race, this cartoon form looks very similar to the stereotyped image of Mexicans.
We've seen a vast array of racial propaganda like Frito Bandito: large nosed Jews during the Holocaust, servicing Black grandmothers on syrup bottles, and happy "Uncle Tom's" serving white consumers.
Here's a video of one of Frito Bandito's commercials which, yes, did air on television at one point in time.
I wanted to post an entry about this just to share what I have been looking into lately. I wonder if years from now we will look at the advertisements we so commonly know today and deem them as attacks to certain races.
