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Dunkin' Donuts Yanks Rachael Ray Ad

Critics Say Scarf Looks Like Arab Headdress

POSTED: 8:45 am EDT May 28, 2008
UPDATED: 10:33 am EDT May 28, 2008

Dunkin’ Donuts abruptly pulled an ad featuring its pitch woman Rachael Ray after a conservative commentator wrote that the scarf Ray wore in the ad looked like a keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men.

Ray, who hosts a daytime talk show and two programs on the Food Network, wore a silk scarf with a black-and-white paisley design in the commercial. Some thought it looked too much like a keffiyeh.

“The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad," Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin wrote in her syndicated column.

"Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons," Malkin wrote.

Dunkin’ Donuts denied the similarity, but decided to pull the ad.

“Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial," the company said in a statement.

Malkin said she was pleased with the company’s response.

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