SA food brand criticised for making fun of adoption

“Mum and dad did not want you to know, but that’s the story of how you got adopted.”

This is the opening line from an Eskort advert where tween twin brothers sit across their younger brother, breaking it to him that he is not biologically related to them.

“I mean, you don’t really look like us. Look at all the family photos,” the ad continues.

The ad has been criticised for being tone-deaf, insensitive and “othering” adopted children. “You don’t look like any of us,” makes the adopted child feel like they do not belong in the family.

Adoptive mom and author Jacqui Bester said the ad saddens her. She acknowledges that brands use social satire to gain a reaction from the audience, and Eskort and the advertising agency Metropolitan Republic have achieved just that.

However, Jacqui feels the ad is “insensitive to the fact that it’s cruel to the boy and it almost feels like bullying”.

The ad ends with the line: “It’s so tasty, you’ll out sibling your siblings.”

Jacqui asks: “What do viennas have to do with out sibling your siblings?”

It was just a joke

Dr Dee Blacke, a child protection activist, wrote a letter to Eskort’s advertising agency after she saw the advert. In the letter, Blacke makes mention of how insensitive the advert is and how it could potentially make an adopted child feel. The agency responded by saying the boy is not actually adopted and the brothers are simply “pranking” him.

Belonging and identity are big challenges in the adoption community and many adopted children grow up without knowing their origin stories. The global pandemic has also exacerbated the issues of child abandonment in SA as we saw a drastic increase in cases of newborns being abandoned.

ALSO READ: FEATURE: How do you share your adopted child’s origin story with them?

These are, therefore, serious issues when we look at a country like SA. Speaking to eNCA, Blacke says “it is not a laughing matter”. Social satire should never be about serious social issues like adoption, especially in a South African context.

How the world has transitioned from making jokes about sexuality, religion and disability should be the same way adoption should also not be a joke, Blacke believes.

Normalising bullying

The boy who was supposedly not adopted sat there and endured meanness and insensitivity from his brothers. The funniest part of the video was his clap back. “Did you know that your girlfriend Stacey is also his girlfriend Stacey?” the boy asks.

He stood up for himself in a situation that was meant to make him feel terrible.

Bullying situations don’t always end well and, like Lufuno Mavhungu, some can be deadly.

The adoption community is submitting complaints to the Advertising Regulatory Board, requesting the ad to be removed so that no other adopted child should see it. Blacke is calling on other people, even outside the adoption community to submit complaints.