deerstalker

Last month, Wendy’s changed the game by releasing a five-track mixtape that ruthlessly takes aim at its two biggest haters, McDonald’s and Burger King. On the project, which is titled “We Beefin’,” the restaurant’s famous red-head mascot, aka “Queen Wendy,” proclaims itself as “fast food’s first lady” over trap-style beats. The clever marketing ploy also features album artwork of the chain’s signature square burger patty.

“Rest in Grease,” one of the most popular songs on the EP, takes direct shots at McDonald’s with the lyrics: “You’re No. 1?That’s a joke/Why your ice cream machine always broke?/Why your drive-through always slow?/Why your innovation just can’t grow?”

Wendy’s took it a step further by dedicating an entire song bashing its burger rival’s mascot Ronald McDonald called “Clownin’.” On the track, the artist raps, “You hide from funk / That’s prolly why you go paint your face / My meals are great, people lining up like every day / Leave you in shame, make you run back to Cirque du Soleil / That’s cold game / But what you expect from tryna play / Won’t say no names but you a clown / Get it, OK?”

Another track, titled “Holding It Down,” takes jabs at Burger King with lyrics: “The problem is you didn’t recognize I give no clucks / So wrap it up, turn these chickens to rubber ducks / And BK, don’t think that you got away / You copied my old menu and put it out on replay.”

Since its release on March, 23, the innovative branding strategy has been well-received by social media users. Here’s why:

1. It’s creative

The diss EP goes beyond traditional marketing avenues and gimmicks. Rather than saturating consumers with more advertisements, the project allows Wendy’s to reach its audience through a new medium that gives the company an edge over the competition.

2. It speaks to millennials

The lyrics on “We Beefin’?” speaks the language of young people by using trendy terminology and capitalizing off the entertainment value of rap battle beefs. Plus, it meets the demographic in spaces that they frequent: Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play.

3. It capitalizes on the power of hip-hop as a marketing tool

The mixtape taps into hip-hop’s global multibillion-dollar market, which is often used—and misused—by mainstream corporations. Back in the ’90s, for instance, Sprite collaborated with rappers like Grand Puba and Large Professor for its iconic “Obey Your Thirst” campaign. Amazon also recently collaborated with rap’s reigning queen, Cardi B, to push its brand.

4. It caters to the growing black buy power

According to a 2015 Nielsen study, African American households earning at least $75,000 are growing rapidly, while black Americans make up about 20% of the U.S. population. Black buying power cannot be neglected and denied. Rather, it’s a smart move for companies to tap into this market. Pepsi and Doritos, for instance, featured high-profile black entertainers in a series of Super Bowl ads in an effort to reach the audience.

5. It’s on brand

The Wendy’s Twitter account is notorious for its sassy and snarky clapbacks at haters and for trolling competitors. “We Beefin’?” brilliantly personifies the account’s witty personality as a rap savage.

Listen to Wendy’s “We Beefin’?” mixtape here.

The post In Case You Missed it, Wendy’s Dropped A Mixtape Roasting McDonald’s and Burger King appeared first on Black Enterprise.

Italy’s new parliament is now the most diverse it has ever been. It has more women. It is younger and for the first time ever, it will have a black face occupying one of its seats in its parliament. Nigerian-born Tony Iwobi made waves around the world last month after his electoral triumph made him the country’s first ever black senator.

“After more than 25 years of fighting as part of the League’s big family, I’m about to start another great adventure. I’m ready, friends,” Iwobi wrote, going on to thank his party leader Matteo Salvini and his other fellow party members.

There’s just one issue: the new black immigrant senator’s election promise was to stop “the invasion of immigrants” in Italy.

FAR RIGHT WINGER:

Iwobi is a member of the far-right League, formerly the Northern League, whose regional policy “was succession from the rest of Italy.” According to the Local, the party has threatened to take Italy out of the euro and the European Union. Its leadership thinks Islam is incompatible with Italian values. It fiercely opposes immigration and has promised to expel thousands of illegal migrants in Italy.

In February, one of its far-right supporters shot and injured six immigrants of African descent in an attack that was deemed racially motivated. Yahoo News even went as far as to describe Iwobi as “the black face to Italy’s far-right” movement.

Iwobi, who moved to Italy on a student visa in 1976 was born to a Roman Catholic family of 11 in Gusau, Nigeria, in 1955. He worked several odd jobs like plumbing, garbage collector, and in construction while earning a degree in accounting and computer science. He now runs an IT security and services company in Spirano, where he has lived for the majority of his 42 years in the country.

HIS TOUGH STANCE ON IMMIGRATION:

Just days after his election victory, one of Italy’s famous black footballer blasted the 63-year old on social media for his stance on immigration.

“Maybe I’m blind or maybe they haven’t told him that he’s black yet. Disgrace!” Mario Balotelli wrote of Iwobi on Instagram.

Balotelli, who is now 27 years old, was born in Palermo, Sicily, to Ghanaian immigrants and was given to foster parents at the age of two. Because his foster family didn’t officially adopt him, Balotelli had to wait till he was 18 years old to be granted Italian citizenship.

”It’s an absurd law which needs to be changed. He was born and raised in Italy but had to suffer the humiliation and hardships of being considered a foreigner,” said Silvia Balotelli, his foster mother said.

Reforms proposed in the Senate in December to make the process easier was vehemently opposed by Iwobi.

“Why should the children of foreigners become Italian just like that? It’s not right,” Iwobi was quoted in Il Giornale, Italy’s right-wing newspaper.

Jean-Léonard Touadi, a Congolese-born journalist and politician with Italy’s center-to-left Democratic Party said Iwobi suffers from “Stockholm’s Syndrome”

“He acts as a mouthpiece for the anti-African proclamations of his own jailers,” Touadi said.

The post Italy’s First Black Immigrant Senator Doesn’t Really Like Immigrants appeared first on Black Enterprise.

#Beychella is the name of the show now. Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter made history by becoming the first black woman to ever headline Coachella and as usual, when the Queen comes to perform, she comes to win.

BOY BYE #beychella pic.twitter.com/3XtnOER0pA

— Yoncé Hub💧 (@theyoncehub) April 15, 2018

👑 #Beychella #Coachella pic.twitter.com/o2KQPE4ZpS

— BEYONCÉ LEGION (@Bey___Legion) April 15, 2018

#Beychella pic.twitter.com/6Pi53owJ3K

— Yoncé Hub💧 (@theyoncehub) April 15, 2018

Now, I’ll admit, I do not care about Coachella overall, but looking at the lineup, this was one of the few times I thought it might actually worth it to go. Watching clips of Queen B slay in her shorts and a bright yellow crop-top sweater was enough to make a girl cry tears of jealousy. Lord only knows what will happen when Cardi B takes the stage tomorrow.

(via The Root)

It’s like Black History Month in April <3

• Yesterday, Troop 6000, New York City’s Girl Scout troop specifically for homeless girls, held its first cookie sale at Kellogg’s by Union Square. I actually attended the cookie sale and not only did I get several boxes of Samoas, it was awesome to see these young girls getting to have fun and participate in this tradition of selling cookies. (via Jezebel)
• Like many A Song of Ice and Fire fans, I have been extra peeved at the series leaving out Lady Stoneheart and it appears that George R.R. Martin shares our frustration. “That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books and, you know, I argued against that, and David and Dan made that decision.” (via i09)
• Milos Forman, director of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus, has died. He was 86. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
• Our man crush every day, Donald Glover will be pulling double duty on SNL both hosting and then performing as his rapper persona Childish Gambino. (via CNET)

What artist would you brave Coachella to go see?

(image: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Coachella )

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Feelings about sex and virginity are very individualized. Everyone matures at a different level and even though we claim to live in a sex-positive era, there is still a level of judgment when it comes to people who are virgins. In her amazing sex/relationship column, Ask AnnieThing, actress Annie Murphy of Schitt’s Creek answers a question from a reader who is 22, a virgin and feels behind because of it.

Q: I’m 22 years old and—yikes!—still a super virgin. I’ve tried dating through apps and have had no success because everyone seems to be looking for an “instant gratification” that I can’t give them. I feel so behind the curve. How do I date when everyone I meet expects to have sex right away? Should I feel badly for being a virgin when my peers are sexually active?

Murphy’s answer, which you should definitely check out in full, is amazing and hilarious, but here are some of my favorite bits from  the response:

“Here is my short answer: No, no, NO. You should absolutely, positively not feel badly for being a virgin at ANY age.

[…]

Losing the oooool’ V-card (ugh, I’m sorry) means different things to different people. There are people who make mixtapes comprising mostly of Goo Goo Dolls and Enya, and wait and wait and wait for a rainy day when their parents aren’t home, then slap on some fairy lights and invite their longtime boyfriend over for “the big event.” (Why are you looking at me like that; that’s not MY story. OK it was me.) Then there are people, like one of my best friends, who just wanted to get it over with, so they had sex with one of their friends in a bathroom at IHOP. (Don’t worry, I’ve been assured that bathroom was one of the “bigger, cleaner ones.”)

[…]

There are lots of fun, sexy things to do that don’t have to involve losing your virginity. Laser tag and handjobs, for example. […] Be honest about your virginity. Let things happen on your own terms. Losing your virginity doesn’t have to be “special” in the sense that you should spend 10 years crocheting a blanket upon which you shall be deflowered, but it certainly should be special in the sense that you are in control of, and comfortable with the situation when it happens. Go forth!!”

What I enjoy so much about Murphy’s response is that it makes it very clear that a person’s virginity should mean whatever you want it to mean. Bring sex-positive doesn’t just mean ending slut-shaming, it also means, not treating people who don’t want to have sex, for whatever reason, as if they are prudish or cold.

Regardless of if someone is asexual, waiting for marriage, or just waiting for the right time/date/location, virginity does not define someone’s worth sexually or otherwise. It is not something anybody should be ashamed of.

Besides, if anyone pressures you into having sex when you don’t want to or makes you feel bad about your virginity, they are a jerk and it’s for the best that you didn’t share any intimacy with someone who can’t even muster some respect for you, your body and the choices you’ve made for it.

(via Flare, image: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

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