If you thought it's bad that Cingular
was running vibrator ads on Daily Kos the other day (w/Communication Workers of America, no less)...or even if you thought it WASN'T bad, look at this: Cingular had a racist ringtone, see WaPoo,
Cingular Pulls Offensive Ringtone,
"Cingular Wireless LLC pulled a ringtone from its Web site Tuesday after learning that it carried a message the company called "blatantly offensive."
The cell phone company became aware of the ringtone, which uses mixed English and Spanish and threatens deportation, after an inquiry from a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.
The newspaper reported in its online edition Tuesday that the ringtone started with a siren, followed by a male voice saying in a Southern drawl, "This is la Migra," a slang term for the Border Patrol.
"Por favor, put the oranges down and step away from the cell phone. I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I'm deporting you back home-o," the voice continued.
(more Cingularity below)
Hispanic activists called the product racist.
"It's horribly offensive and a disgusting thing," Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the newspaper.
Cingular removed the $2.49 ringtone, among thousands available for downloading from its Web site, Tuesday afternoon, said company spokesman Mark Siegel.
"Needless to say, we deeply regret and apologize for it ever being there in the first place. The ringtone is blatantly offensive," he said. ..."
All right, they pulled it, but why did they run it in the first place?
And some of the after-excuses are even worse, see Breitbart, Cingular Says Pulled Ringtone Was Satire,
"The company that developed the lyrics for a ringtone about deportation apologized Thursday after Cingular Wireless LLC pulled it for being offensive.
Barrio Mobile said the ringtone "La Migra" _ a slang term for Border Patrol agent _ was satire and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Mexican-American comic Paul Saucido wrote the ringtone that features a male voice, acting as a Border Patrol agent with a Southern drawl, saying, "I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I'm deporting you back home-o."
"His position is that people of Hispanic background need to maintain a sense of humor about the immigration situation," said Jonathan Dworkin, a vice president of Cellfish Media, which distributed the ringtone. ..." (!!!)
By the way, see these recent DKos diaries about Cingular vis-a-vis the NSA wiretap scandals: Is Cingular wireless involved? (w/poll) by IA Hawkeye, and Cingular's privacy policy violated? by nbcouch.
Re the NSA issue, the Cingular ad you can click through on DKos, saying "And with Cingular, your voice will come thorough loud and clear too." has an additionally sinister aspect to it.
Cingular: crazed racists with vibrators who may be turning your secrets over to General "Liberty-Hatin'" Hayden. Lucky us. Lucky U.S.