Oswald emphasised that the characters in the production are crash test dummies, and the darker face was painted in grey paint, not black.

“There are no references to any race in this production, which was created solely for the purpose of promoting road safety,” she said.

A representative for Mapfre also denied the use of blackface in the campaign, saying that it had no intention of offending anyone.

“The aim of this campaign is to create awareness about road safety measures amongst young children. The videos were produced in a cartoonish way to appeal to a young audience and the fact that the faces were painted in yellow and grey were just to make it attractive,” a representative told Lovin Malta.

“There was no intention whatsoever of portraying black people as being the bad ones,” it said. 

“We had no intention to offend any race, religion, or association. The video was produced by popular actors Danusan and it was commissioned by Malta Public Transport who coordinates the campaign for us,” it said.

The campaign, which is mainly aimed at families and children, features a family labeled as the Safe Family, as well as a character named Mr Careless.

The villain in the videos is depicted as grey, while the ‘Safe Family’ is depicted as having a yellow tone.

In yesterday’s article on the matter where BLM Malta called out the possibility of blackface, it even made reference to previous incidents in Malta where the use of blackface was justified.

What do you make of this?