WATCH: Is Volkswagen's Jamaica-themed Super Bowl ad racist?

The carmaker uses a smiling white office worker with a Jamaican accent to urge people to "get in" and "get happy"

Get in. Get happy. Get racist?
(Image credit: YouTube)

Volkswagen is taking some heat for the commercial it plans to air during Sunday's Super Bowl. The spot, which VW started showing online this week, features a tall, goofy white man from Minnesota speaking in a Jamaican accent and trying to cheer up colleagues in a dreary office. In the opening shot, a man in an elevator says, "I hate Mondays," a woman says, "Yeah, they're the worst," and the happy-go-lucky faux islander chimes in from behind, saying, "No worries, mon. Everyt'ing will be all right." He then doles out uplifting comments to co-workers before taking his boss and the guy who hates Mondays for a ride in his new VW Beetle. They wind up adopting island accents, too. Then VW's new slogan appears: "Get in. Get Happy." Take a look:

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.