Levy ‘fumes’ about flag stomping

Levy told the Jamaica Observer that he first saw the ad yesterday  on YouTube. He describes the scene where a man stomps on the burning flag to  extinguish it as “disrespectful.”

The ad was produced by the Saturn Coffee Shop, a German company  and was aired last week.

Levy, 48, says Saturn’s management approached him recently to use  Murderer as part of their promotional campaign. Levy said he agreed but had no  idea the visual would involve offensive use of the Jamaican banner.

“We made the necessary arrangements in terms of licensing but we  never discussed anything about burning or stomping on the flag,” he said.

The ad, which is produced in German, shows two men making coffee  in a store. They accidentally start a fire that ignites a Jamaican flag hanging  in the establishment.

In an effort to prevent the fire from spreading, one of the men  takes the burning flag outside, throws it on the sidewalk and starts stomping on  it to put out the blaze.

It has been condemned in some quarters. Olivia Grange, the  Opposition Jamaica Labour Party spokesperson on culture, was among the  unimpressed.

“Whilst the commercial with heavy Jamaican  influences may have  been devoid of malicious intent as partly illustrated by the prominent unfurling  of the Jamaican flag in the end, it is unacceptable to have images of Jamaica’s  national flag being desecrated in fact the same is  true for  any national flag  the world over,” Grange said in a statement.

Saturn’s controversial promo aired three weeks after another  German company, Volkswagen, ran a satirical ad during the Super Bowl in the  United States.

That visual portrayed a man from the American Midwest prodding  co-workers at a Volkswagen office to cheer up, using a dodgy Jamaican  accent.

While organisations like the Jamaica Tourist Board welcomed the  publicity from the slot, some persons in the United States inluding CNN  contrbutor and New York Times columnist Charles Blow, called it racist.

Levy, who says he last performed in Germany last year, recorded  Murderer in 1984. It was produced by Hyman ‘Jah Life’ Wright.

One of his biggest hits, Murderer is on Barrington Levy’s Reggae  Anthology: Sweet Reggae Music, a compilation to be released by VP Records.

His latest song is the self-produced The Way She Loves Me with Mr  Vegas.