Dutch Airline KLM Roasted By Actor Gael Garcia Bernal For Mocking Mexico’s World Cup Exit

Chris Wright

30th, June 2014

9 Comments

By Chris Wright

Gael Garcia Bernal Amnesty International Photocall - London

Gael Garcia Bernal: Not a happy conejito

Following Holland’s last-ditch comeback victory that sent Mexico packing from the World Cup in Fortaleza yesterday, Dutch airline KLM poked a bit of fun at their Mexican brethren by Tweeting a picture of one of their departure boards along with the caption “Adios Amigos”…

klm-mexico

A harmless jibe it may well have been, but it certainly lost KLM at least one high-profile customer…

klm-mexico-bernal

Yep, we think he’s serious folks.

The airline quickly deleted the Tweet after the inevitable Twitter race storm (centred around the use of the moustachioed, sombrero-wearing stereotype Mexican on the sign) kicked into full swing, with KLM spokeswoman Lisette Ebeling Koning later coming forth to plead that the Tweet was merely meant as a light rib and that her airline never intended to offend Mexicans.

“It was meant to be a joke,” she whimpered. “But there was too much negative reaction.”

Posted in FAIL, Funnies, Media, Newsnow

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9 Comments

  1. arsenalroo says:

    That is not a “harmless” gesture. Straight up bigotry. A bit of time to make sombrero guy and then post it. In that time some Dutch artist could have let it sunk into his/her head that it’s a no-go. Then someone else approved it.

    Bad.

  2. Joe says:

    What a sore loser

  3. Jim says:

    If the little sombrero guy is racist, someone should’ve told all the Mexican fans in the stadium wearing sombreros. Or the designers of the ’70 WC mascot. It’s good to know that I can call everyone using tired Dutch stereotypes a racist and a bigot, though.

  4. EDub says:

    The real issue here is, as a multinational corporation, it’s best to keep from getting involved in anything that might incite a boycott.

    Do better, KLM!!!

  5. No Mames says:

    The stands are full of sombreros, as Jim noted. Insensitive from KLM? Maybe. I find it amusing that this is the response from the fans and country that regularly yell “PUUUUTO!” at the opposition goalkeeper and seem to be regular fans of littering the pitch with cups of beer when frustrated. Find your sense of humor, Mexicanos … it’s gone missing.

  6. arsenalroo says:

    Look at the image. It shows only the sombrero, the moustache and the pancho. The mascot in the ’70s was in the ’70s. Kinda like “negro” was ok in the ’50s for legal documents. Kinda like “retard” was ok in the ’50s but now is “intellectually disabled”. Also matters who presents the image and their history. Strangely the Dutch were once a colonial power that committed historically bad colonial behavior. South Africa. hmm.

    Just shouldn’t have done it.

  7. Terry Shedingham says:

    “Twitter is the Stasi for the Angry Birds generation” – Stewart Lee

  8. Joe says:

    A sense of humour? In 2014? What were they thinking..?
    It’s a po-faced world, that twitter. Look at some of the comments above ferchrissakes.

    You know what it is, if there’s one thing I’ve discovered during this World Cup, it is that as much as we are told we live in a ‘Global Village’, there are some neighbourhoods in the village you wouldn’t want to pass through. We may all consume the same sh*t, but culturally, we’re still worlds apart. Which is fine, as long as I don’t have to live next door to, say, the Uruguay president and his backwards views on civility, or over-sensitive Mexican actors, Brazilian emotionalists who hold up the shirt for an injured player when a minute’s silence for the passing of one of the game’s greatest ever legends would have been more apt.

  9. Ron says:

    Chris – I love your work and I think you’re a great writer but…I don’t think it’s proper to write/say “centre around.” I think you centre on something. You can hover around something, but I think you centre on it.

    Take it for what it’s worth, I know this isn’t a grammar test.

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