I think that this is Polish is relevant, but not in the way many people will say.  A lot of people will say "oh, they're Polish, they don't know better, they don't have black people, stop forcing your American attitudes on us" or "there isn't racism in Europe, that's an American thing."  But, the Polish language has slurs against black people (my friend's Polish speaking father's favorite reaction to black kids playing in the street while he was driving was apparently the Polish approxamation of the n-word).  Regardless of whether there are many black people living in Poland, the language still has at least one built in word to degrade someone who fits the description.  During my time in predominantly-white Europe (Germany, which does have a higher black population than Poland), I found that the same people who couldn't think of an "appropriate" word for black people and have no idea what the Confederate flag on their shirt means also were REALLY into their idea of black American culture, which is mostly delivered via big name American TV shows and movies written and directed by white Americans.  So while open racism against blacks was generally frowned upon, more complex topics like "positive stereotyping" and "appropriation" and "seriously, that flag is on Wikipedia, go ahead and look it up to see why Americans look at you funny" were met with blank stares.  American (and also British) representations of blacks are making it into European countries that are almost entirely white, and have built-in terms and attitudes of oppression without having many real life black people.  A lot of it seems to manifest into the idea that "these people are COOL and NEATO because they're hardcore and funny on TV, but if they annoy me, I will degrade them for their race."  It distills the treatment of a people that are often portrayed as subhuman and as props in countries where they are a visible minority, and places it in a context where there are few real-life examples to compare too.

*The closest that I could find was "Afrikan," but that is inaccurate.  The other possible words either made no sense at all, or were not exactly seen as politically correct (not slurs so much, but similar to calling an American black person a "negro" or "colored" in 2012).  Shockingly, when I called myself "American" Germans just looked at me funny, like "I know you're trying to pull one over on me.  What is the joke?"  If any fluent German speakers know, please tell me, but none I encountered could help.

My "favorite" part is in the second clip is when Mike Tyson leaves a white woman behind for the guy at the vending machine.  He's such a do gooder, saving drinks for shrimpy white men, and doling out ladies like they're business cards.

This idea that racism is somehow "an American thing" is really strange to me as a European. We are the continent that invented both fascism and nazism after all, and there's a growing amount of Islamophobia, nationalism and straight-up white supremacy. European racism takes a different from from American racism and has a different history, but it's very real. I'm sure that the people who made that ad were not naive, they knew exactly the racist ideas they were playing with.

I can agree with the general tune of the note, however I see that we need to contextualize thing a bit. The director of the commercial was Kasia Adamik. Polish born, but raised abroad, also on various movie sets all over the world where her more famous Mum (Agnieszka Holland, member of the Academy, recently nominated for the Academy Award) used to work (see her portfolio as a storyboard artist on IMDB). I have no idea whatsoever whether she had something to do with the script of the commercial. Anyway, both ladies are considered in public debate in Poland to be voice of the liberally minded share of the population, of the "open and tolerant Poland", being vocal against rightist government of Kaczynski Brothers in years 2005-2007, defending civic rights, and rights of LGBT (Kasia is open lesbian, not an obvious thing in conservative Poland and even in this business). Subsequently they have supported currently governing party, even if just as a lesser evil (in most issues quite in line with the previous one, yet with a nicer face).

At the same time Kasia Adamik shot quite obscene and scandalous movie about homeless footballers, being marvelous example of orientalization of poverty, stigmatization of the homeless, addicts and so on, usual stuff in Polish public discourse. Not surprisingly, by most mainstream media the movie was considered as a socially sensitive and accurately depicting the lives of "losers of transformation" who have taken things in their hands and through hard work managed to get straight.

I do wonder whose idea was the whole Mike Tyson commercial, but it seems to me that the thing has also a lot to do with the rivalry on the market of energizers. Another brands of them are also advertised by pugilists (Polish ones: Adamek and Michalczewski), so bringing Tyson to the stage was definitely motivated by this as well. 

Anyway, these are just some thoughts from here, best regards from Poland

That may have been the creepiest thing I have ever seen. Those weird close-ups of the women's lips while they're flopping around and cooing like babies at his genteelishly-played rapey monologue actually sent shivers down my spine. It's like a fun-sized mini-model of the patriarchy.

This is one of those things that makes me remember on a visceral level just what kind of sickness infects us.

Disgusting.Mike Tyson will do anything for money. I am embarrassed he is Black.

Inflaming the web commentariat is the first step of turning a regional ad for a little-known product into 15 minutes of viral sensation. 

And when your brand is aimed squarely at the young male market, what is the incentive not to advertise in the poorest taste you can get away with? 

To me the interesting question is this: Could these ads have turned up in the US?  Assuming most people would find it highly improbable that they could see the light of day in the US, then what are the societal differences that permit this in Poland but not in the US.  Is it a difference in racial sensitivity (particularly "white"/"black" sensitivities)?  Is it a difference in the way politically incorrect comedy is tolerated?  Does it have to do with our comparative histories during the past century?  Poland, which through the broad sweep of its history was more racially/culturally homogeneous than the US, has during the past century been subjected to foreign rule, first by the Germans and later by the Russians. Does this make Poles less concerned about the feelings of those who are perceived as the "other?"

I can't say that i'm surprised about this.  To me, Eastern Europe is a special region when it comes to deploying the most barefaced anti-black racist attitudes I have ever been witness to.  I can't even cringe - the stuff people say and do is just so out of this world, not even directly comparable with the most heinous attitudes of early 20th century US that many of us now write about.  It is as if ads like this are produced with no awareness or recognition that anyone would ever consider them tasteless or downright problematic, or that black people would eventually see them and reject the ideas being expressed.  Black people simply don't exist in the worlds of many Eastern Europeans as real people.  And these attitudes certainly travel.  Here in Chicago, I've had some interesting conversations with Bosnian, Polish and Ukrainian folks, and some are convinced that they understand something about the "nature" of black people that Americans have forgotten because of civil rights and political correctness. 

This was one of the craziest series of ads that I've ever seen.  The most offensive part was the end of the first one, where Tyson starts growling like an animal out of nowhere.  Is this how they see black people in Poland?

And the second one was really confusing.  I'm big into heightism and so of course, I focused in on the heights of the characters.  Mike Tyson is 5'8" and the women behind him look to be about 5'9" or 5'10".  That makes the guy by the vending machine about 5'4".  What are the advertisers trying to say with this height difference?  In most U.S. advertising, the use of a short man usually makes the short guy look like a bumbling fool or an inferior.  Here, I think the short guy was supposed to represent "the average guy" and Tyson and the tall women are supposed to represent something "cool" and "exotic" which could be attained by drinking "Black".  [Rolls eyes]

I have a problem with labeling Mike Tyson as a convicted rapist. If the guy served his time, isn't he theoretically reformed? If all we do is remind people of their past mistakes, however heinous, they are going to repeat them. If we label people as un-reformable criminals, they become un-reformable criminals.

The video-- especially the lyrics is disturbing. I will ignore the white female angle since Poland is majority white, so it is natural they would have a larger pool of white female models for the commercial. Plus I am not sure Poland has the same stereotypes about black men desperately wanting white women.

Not surprising, given Polish soccer fans' notorious history of racial abuse towards black players.

 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-12/olisadebe-says-he-beat-racists-to-become-polish-soccer-pioneer.html

While I recognize that calling Mike Tyson a "beast" who "cant control himself" is problematic for about a million reasons, I think that maybe just maybe they were alluding to his career as a boxer, not his history with rape... obviously that message is lost by surrounding him with women but just a thought!

How disgusting