This year, MTV hopes to highlight the issues of racial tension in Ferguson, Mo.
In 2013, MTV faced criticism for the cultural appropriation of Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's twerking-heavy Video Music Awards performance. This year, MTV hopes to start a different conversation by highlighting the continued unrest in Ferguson, Mo., after the Aug. 9 fatal police shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, which has affected the entire country.
The ad set to air on Ferguson during the Video Music Awards is part of a larger campaign by MTV called "Look Different," aimed at starting conversations for young people around issues of race, gender, and sexual identity. The program was designed in partnership with Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and follows in MTV's commitment to social activism in youth programming, such as the pro-democracy campaign called Choose or Lose started in the early '90s.
MTV President Stephen Friedman told the Washington Post, "Eighty percent of our audience believes that bias is at the root of racism and prejudice. But when cultural explosions like Trayvon Martin, or the recent death on Staten Island, or what is now happening in Ferguson occur, our audience often feels paralyzed to discuss the issues." Friedman hopes the campaign works as a launching point for conversations.
