Actor Ben Affleck featured in the Turkish Airlines commercial during Super Bowl 50. (Source: Turkish Airlines)
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
At the conclusion of Super Bowl 50 on Sunday, CBS aired a commercial for Turkish Airlines featuring Academy Award-winning actor Ben Affleck as its new spokesperson. This is a surprising choice for the actor who has been a staunch advocate for human rights around the world.
Asbarez readers will recall the community-wide anger toward Los Angeles Lakers front man Kobe Bryant who had signed a multi-million dollar deal with Turkish Airlines, arguing that such a high-profile celebrity, who is adored by young people, should not be supporting a company with ties to a genocidal regime.
The difference this time is that Affleck’s views on human rights issues have been widely publicized, so the question is whether he chose to ignore the abhorrent human rights, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where mass killings have been commonplace.
In fact, Affleck has testified before Congress and urged US intervention in Congo to end the mass killings there. In 2010 he founded the non-profit Eastern Congo Initiative, which, according to its website, “is an advocacy and grant-making initiative wholly focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo.â€
