Those who are looking for reasons to be offended might enjoy Cafe Jazz Populart in Madrid.
So the wife and I were out and about today and at one point found ourselves outside a Dunkin’ Donuts. For research purposes, I purchased half a dozen charcoal doughnuts, two each of three different styles, but all blacker than a coal mine at midnight. It is some sort of chocolate cake doughnut, and the wife remarked on the blackness of the product. They’re having a big promotion, with a special black box for them, and the boxes contain two coupons for 50% off of a half-dozen regular doughnuts of any type until the end of next January. As well, there’s a special little charcoal-black teddy bear you can buy, but I didn’t pick up one of those.
Sadly, the girl in the ad was not present.
They’re not bad, a good basic doughnut as far as Dunkin’ Donuts goes. I would not have thought to buy anything if it hadn’t been for the kerfuffle, so it’s worked out for them. Now I’m just a little bit fatter and Dunkin’ Donuts that much richer.
Is everybody in this thread aware that perceiving a “blackface” as offensive is an American cultural artefact and not universal?
I thought I would mention it since it came up in a thread some months ago that some people assumed this was considered offensive everywhere (an American poster had seen someone in blackface in Spain and had assumed this was an evidence of insensitivity to racial issues or possibly plain racism).
Zwarte Piet is still a thing in the Netherlands.
A somewhat humorous commentary on the controversy: Driving me (dough)nuts!
I think most people are aware. The problem here is that Dunkin’ Donuts is an American company and so are presumably held to American standards. Or are they? I think that’s what the issue here boils down to.
It’s a conflict between head office and a national franchise in Thailand.
In summary, it appears that the Thailand franchise has lots of latitude to make up its own ad champaign and possibly they never passed it by head office - which is now telling them to pull it.
As for the ad - my impression is the model is damned hot. 
I did not immediately think of “Blackface” so much as science-fiction.
Precisely what I thought, and alluded to upthread.
So, basically an overt appeal to racists. You know what? It’d probably work.
I think the lips are intended to match the color of the DD logo.
I don’t see it as blackface - don’t see it as offensive, and if it was done outside the US - don’t see why anyone would care.
Now I’m hungry and want a donut.
Who’d care? They’d only be there briefly – if they had any sense, they’d be polite-ish to their direct hosts – plenty of cash into the local economy, “blackface” and “Hitler Chicken” practitioners would benefit – everyone would be happy.
I can’t help but appreciate the symmetry of the fact that Thailand is extremely anti-smoking now; I was there a month ago to visit a doctor and couldn’t smoke much of anywhere.
Damn it, it’s no good getting a foot massage if I can’t have a cigarette the while!
This was my impression. If they’d chosen the orange rather than the pink in the dunkin label, it would probably have been less bad–or, as others have suggested, all black.
The ad’s saving grace is that the model’s entire body is painted black (or at least the impression given is that she is entirely painted black). This IMO says to me that it was not intended to be blackface, whether intentionally or not.