Thembisa Mshaka

Super Bowl 44 did not disappoint: great back story going into the game. The Colts have a Black coach, who gets them back into the playoffs during his first year in his new role. Garcon represents Haiti as they clinch their conference title by draping the Haitian flag on the trophy table. The Saints carry an entire city on their backs to their first Super Bowl appearance in their 40 year franchise history–and to think they almost moved the team post-Katrina. As the Saints go marching in to the big game, Mardi Gras starts two weeks early.

The game was equally exciting. As a die-hard basketball watcher, I was riveted. I had no ‘team’ to root for per se’, so I chose the underdogs, The Saints. The Colts already have a ring, so, why not? As an entertainment exec and advertising writer, I usually watch the game for the halftime show and the ads anyway. (More on that halftime show later).

Which brings me to the advertisements. I tweeted my votes for my hashtags #adFAIL and #adWIN throughout the night. You can check my timeline here once your request is accepted (@putyrdreams1st).

Not big on Twitter? No problem.  Here’s a quick rundown of my favorites and reasons why:

VW: Because of Stevie Wonder.

Snickers: Because of Betty White and Abe Vigoda.

Audi TDI: Green Police. Every town needs them!

Dodge Charger: Great VO and totally unexpected WOW hero payoff of the product.

FloTV ‘Skirt’: way to make guys see why they need one–for when their lady brings them along to shop.

Google: Incredible narrative woven without a word spoken.

Dante’s Inferno: Contrast of seeing war waged in Hell while listening to Bill Withers ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’. Brilliant.

A few #adFAIL candidates: Bud Light’s human bridge; Tebow sacking his mom in an anti-abortion ad; Prince of Persia trailer with NO people of color playing Persians (but that’s really another Avatar-sized Hollywood fail).

My winner for #adWIN of the Game may surprise some readers, but yes, it’s the Doritos ‘Slap’ ad. It’s beautifully cast with attractive brown-skinned African Americans who are also solid actors; a shapely woman with a radiant smile, a cool guy with locks, and a cute kindergarten-age boy, set in a well appointed but modest home occupied by the mother and son.

You can watch the spot here.

For those who can’t see it, the guy brings the single mom flowers as he arrives to pick her up for a date. She goes to another room and tells her son to “be nice”; as she exits the guy eyes her legs and behind, with visions of conquest and sheer admiration of her assets visible on his face.

Her son picks up on this and is so upset, he drops his video game controller.  Oblivious, the  guy takes a seat on the couch and reaches for a Dorito in the bowl on the coffee table, making cocky small talk with the kid about beating him in a video game. In an instant, the kid smacks the guy in the face, then gets UP IN dude’s face, and admonishes: “keep yo hands off my momma, and keep yo hands off my Doritos.”

It’s shocking. It’s cute. It’s hilarious.

It’s also touched a nerve with Black men.

A couple tweets in reaction stood out for me:

from on-air personality @ToureX:  “The nasty Black kid protecting his mama was kinda cute but such a gross, silly stereotype. A foul, violent Black boy? Thanks Doritos.”

and @Bos_Naud as a re-tweet from Daily Math  blogger @Combat_Jack: RT @BosNaud: “The black man lost again in that Doritos commercial.”

So I talked to MY Black man about it, www.amluxe.com blogger @tmizy. He was about the same age as the Dorito kid when his mom became a single parent. His opinion was very insightful and much different. He said the spot may have bruised Black men’s egos, but beneath the humor lies a very un-funny “chin-check” about how cavalier Black men can be with women and children. He went further to say: “this is not a sterotypically violent Black boy. This is the reality of children with absentee Black fathers. He’s protecting his mother from another dude he just met who just looked at his mother’s ass. I was that mad as a kid before, but couldn’t do anything about it. The guy didn’t even ASK the kid for the Doritos!”

Both good points. Perhaps this commercial is striking a chord because it airs the dirty laundry of the single male who happens to be Black–and thinks he can roll up with flowers and impress the little man of the house; the same guy who ogles women in front of their sons. The guy had rendered the lil’ homie invisible-or at least a non-issue. Maybe that’s why he got slapped.

When I saw the spot, it came across as more of a comment on the dynamic between people in a situation than one only Black people experience. This is the difference between stereotyping and diverse casting. If the people had been cast as white, I totally buy a 5-6 year old who hits strangers. It’s what MOST kids do. Just like MOST men look at women’s bodies hungrily–especially when they think no one’s noticing. Further, the kid was set off; it wasn’t a random slap.

And listen: I’m a Black woman with a 9 year-old son; I’ve written award-winning advertising for a living for over a decade. I am extremely critical of advertising; I understand all the hidden messaging, nuances, etc. I get why brothers might be mad.

It holds up a mirror-and the reflection causes discomfort. Sure the kid could have mushed his forehead with his finger, or stopped his hand in a close-up beauty shot on the chips-but the ad campaign is “Snack Strong”. Passivity is not what’s called for. It also gets viewers talking about the ad–while never forgetting about the brand or the product. The job of advertising is to provoke: emotion, action, purchasing. #adWIN. Don’t think for a minute that guys haven’t felt like the men in the Dodge Charger spot or the FloTV ’shopping’ spot: Exposed. Confronted.  Because Doritos accomplished and revealed so much in :30 seconds while hawking their bag of chips, they win.

Now that halftime show? Aside from the spectacular lighting direction and sound, The Who was an overall Super Bowl #Fail. As for The Who, my question is The Why? There was no mention of a new album or tour; no commercial for them after the set. I know they’ve sold over 100 million records, but their performance was just okay. Pete Twonsend and his belly were having a wardrobe malfunction all their own; not to mention half the viewers have no idea who The Who are. What you should know is that Pete Townsend is a registered sex offender across the pond–to the point where the arena’s neighbors received flyers disclosing that he’d be in the area on Super Bowl Sunday courtesy of the NFL. Not a good look.

No disrespect to the network or their selection, but I think we’ve paid for NippleGate at this point. I also think Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce’, Wyclef, Coldplay, or their outstanding opening act, Jay-Z would have been stronger choices to snack to at the half.

Congratulations to the underdogs, the Super Bowl 44 Champion New Orleans Saints. They are now on top. Here’s to the same being true for the Crescent City in the very near future. WHODAT!

Though I never met her, I wanted to honor the legendary Roxanna Floyd because I felt like I knew her through her work. She was so committed to excellence and so expert in her craft, she gave you her as her subjects gave you face.

As I read more about her after the news broke, I learned that she passed in her sleep at home in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. I’ve probably run into her at Fort Greene Park, or Carol’s Daughter and never even knew it. For her to transition at 49 has to seem unreal to those closest to her–and the beauty world at large.

Fortunately, Harriette Cole, another woman whose work I respect deeply, eulogized her in a note recently posted on Facebook. Her words confirm that Roxanna was the protypical Sister Swan: working hard–and making it look easy with grace, integrity and passion. Re-posting with sorrow at Ms. Floyd’s transition and condolences to her family and friends.

* A Note From Harriette Cole*

We just lost a great one, Roxanna Floyd, a very special makeup artist whose precision and love sculpted many a brown-skinned face in the world of entertainment. Our company was fortunate enough to have worked with her for the past year and a half as she served as Creative Beauty Director for Fashion Fair Cosmetics. Just a few weeks ago, Ebony magazine had the privilege of enjoying her expert hand when we photographed our March 2010 cover subject, Gabourey Sidibe, the star of Lee Daniels’ movie Precious.
It is with mixed emotion that we celebrate Roxanna’s work so intimately at this moment. A sea of people who knew and loved her have been filling the Internet with memories of working with her, connecting with her, loving her.
Roxanna’s very first national magazine cover was for Ebony magazine that she worked on with Ebony fashion and beauty editor Alfred Fornay. I had the unique privilege of working with Roxanna more than 20 years ago when I worked for Essence. I met her through photographer Dwight Carter who booked her for a shoot I produced for the contemporary living department of the magazine. She quickly moved from working with me to making up more than 30 Black celebrities for some 60 Essence covers over the years.
Roxanna Floyd worked with some of our greatest celebrities and models: Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Cynthia Bailey (most recently for the Fashion Fair Cosmetics campaign), Queen Latifah, Iyanla Van Zant, Halle Berry, Phina, Foxy Brown, L.L.Cool J. Sinbad, and Danny Glover, plus many, many more.
She was a genius with a set of makeup brushes. And she appreciated brown skin so much that she learned how to blend colors perfectly to ensure that a woman of any and every skin tone would be flawless before the camera. Roxanna was a perfectionist. Anyone who knew her will tell you that she was the queen of the eyebrow. She spent as much time as it took to sculpt a brow, so much so that you felt like even if you didn’t have anything but foundation and a brow, you were ready for anything!
As I worked with her over many years and countless projects, including multiple books, and several recent Ebony magazine covers, she would always be on set with a magnifying glass, eyeing her subject from a distance to ensure that every detail would translate appropriately for the image being captured. And trust, when something wasn’t perfectly right, she would quietly but clearly pause the shoot to make a much-needed tweak before it could resume.
Roxanna took her craft seriously. More, she quietly and fiercely took her clients and her friends seriously. She was a true confidante. Celebrities loved her so, because she would beat a face but not tell! You know how makeup artists and hairdressers often get all the dirt on a person’s life? Well, if Roxie got it, she kept it to herself. A devout Christian, Roxanna Floyd honored the people in her midst. She felt it was her duty to uplift the people with whom she worked, to seek out their best qualities and nurture them. She did not talk about people. Rare for a person in her field.
Roxanna loved fully and consistently. I feel so fortunate that I knew her for most of my professional life. She was an ace in the hole for any creative project. But more, she was my friend. It was she who did my makeup at my wedding 16 years ago, trekking an hour and a half outside of Manhattan to ensure that I would be perfect on my big day. And it was she who has checked in with me again and again over the years to make sure I was fine—even when she was suffering her own private hardships. She was a class act.
She was a generous soul. The many people who knew and loved her are singing her stories right now through pained tears. We all have memories that make our hearts ache today but that likely will soothe us tomorrow.
Roxanna Floyd is survived by her husband, Rick E. Ramos, her mother, Alberta “Bertha” Floyd, and a world full of beloved friends.
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Harriette Cole is the editor in chief of Ebony magazine. Roxanna Floyd was the makeup artist for her books Jumping the Broom, How to Be, and Choosing Truth.

ANGELA YEE
On Air Personality-Shade45
Host-Lip Service, The Morning After
Sirius/XM Radio

1. Share something you do for work that’s harder than it looks.
   Interviews are definitely a lot harder than they look. I try to make it conversational, but every person or group I speak with requires extensive research. I make sure I read every interview, look at every video, and every blog post that I can find before I talk to guests so that I can have information that everyone else doesn’t know.  I hate to be redundant and ask the same questions that are always asked.
2. Describe a moment of sweet vindication.
   When I first started at Sirius, I had no radio experience. There were a lot of people who felt like I didn’t deserve the job and hoped that it wouldn’t last for me.  Some people felt like I didn’t have the schooling and it wasn’t fair that I should get the opportunity. But I worked harder than most, and I still do, and now I have my own morning and nighttime show.
3. What’s the most dangerous aspect of the waters you navigate?
   There can be a fine line between being a role model and entertaining my largely male audience.  I’ll have porn stars and strippers on the show, but I’m very non-judgmental. Some people may look at it like I’m not being responsible, but the truth is that these women are people too and stories they have can be damn interesting.
4. Who are your influences?
   I love Chelsea Handler because she’s hilarious and her interviews are off-center. And Chris Rock would be one of my all-time favorite people because he is well-versed on history and current events, and makes any topic or interview fun to watch.
5. What is your favorite creative food?
   I’m very simple when it comes to food. I’m also picky. I don’t eat red meat, pork, or seafood so I only get creative with dessert.  If I could live off red velvet cake from cake man raven, chocolate cheesecake, churros, and key lime pie I would.
6. Name two places you call home.
   Brooklyn, where I’m from and where I live now, and the Shade 45 studio.
7. What is your guilty pleasure?
   I love shoes, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Sometimes I take a break, but then I break down and buy 5 pairs at a time.
8. What book are you reading right now?
   Making Music Make Money by Eric Beall. I’m getting ready for an interview with him, and even though I’m not a songwriter it’s fascinating to read how to write songs that can become hits and get played on the radio.