Offensive Flash Banner

As a frequent user of internet radio, I have grown used to the abundance of ads and Flash banners placed on jukebox sites. Afterall, music sites endure hefty licensing cost to stream our favorite tunes legally and, similar to traditional radio, selling advertising space is the most prolific way to recoup for broadcasting expenditures. Like most of you, I’ve developed a blindness for those ridiculously simple “participation required” Flash games (that litter myspace) and I regularly neglect to collect my prize for being the 100th visitor to a website. But recently, I spotted a Flash game on Blogmusik.net (now called Deezer.com) that was just down right offensive, and at the very least passively racist.

The Flash game encouraged players to “Shoot the rapper” by aiming a camera at a character that looks very much like hiphopper 50 Cent walking down on a red carpet. What’s going on here is that the publisher of the STR, Traffix Inc., is trying to capitalize on the popular image of hiphop as a violent art form. Moreover, did anyone stop to think about the offensiveness of the ad dynamics? - the rapper is black, the photographer is white, and the view finder of the camera just happens to resemble the cross-hairs of a snipper riffle - or was that the real joke all along? While the makers of this game may think encouraging players to “shoot the rapper” is a clever pun, I must remind Traffix that enough violence has ravished hiphop and that real people have died. Also, Traffix the goal of your media is to drive traffic and leads for your client sites, not ostracize their hiphop culture influenced visitor base. This game is just deplorable on some many levels.

I heard 50 cents filed a lawsuit against Traffix for using his likeness without permission.