KDWB loses Blue Cross ads over Hmong parody
KDWB has lost another advertiser over that tasteless "Dave Ryan in the Morning" show parody that recently portrayed Hmong Americans in a far less than flattering light
Not as funny as they think they are.
Blue Cross Minnesota found the song, sung to the tune of Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven," bad enough, but the station's pathetic attempt at an apology evidently even more worthless.
Company spokeswoman Pam Lux told MinnPost's David Brauer that the company won't come back as an advertiser until station owner Clear Channel comes up with some assurances that similar muck won't hit the air again.
HealthPartners, and then AT&T, announced ad boycots against the station earlier.
The station sounded stunned at the backlash and proclaimed themselves "very proud that members of the Hmong community are some of our most loyal listeners and fans."
Ryan and his crew couldn't understand why people didn't find this retrograde stereotyping funny:
No room for a couch
More commercial free than before.
'Cause we sleep on the floor
One big group of Vangs
Hmong family of twenty-four
Kids work in St. Paul
Hang out at the mall
'Cause I know they dwell so well
Thirty Hmongs in a house
Hmongs get pregnant early
First baby at 16
Seven kids by 23
Over the hill by 30
Like sardines they live
Packed in a two-room house with the kids
But you know they age quite well
They be Hmongs.
When HealthPartners said it was taking its business someplace else, spokesman Jeff Shelman said, "We have expectations that our business partners will treat people with respect."
Blue Cross obviously felt the same.
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