Given that the content was created by a company with deep ties to many Hispanic businesses I presume it was intended as a spoof, which is not out of character for ringtone content creators.
Yes this serves as another example of how a major national or international brand can be thrust into the spotlight for a product or content that ethnic groups find offensive.
Below are excerpts from an Associated Press story which landed on DrudgeReport.com and other sites today.
Associated Press: Cingular Pulls Offensive Ringtone
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
BROWNSVILLE, Texas -- Cingular Wireless LLC pulled a ringtone from its Web site Tuesday after learning that it carried a message the company called "blatantly offensive."
...
The newspaper reported in its online edition Tuesday that the ringtone started with a siren, followed by a male voice saying in a Southern drawl, "This is la Migra," a slang term for the Border Patrol.
"Por favor, put the oranges down and step away from the cell phone. I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I'm deporting you back home-o," the voice continued.
Hispanic activists called the product racist.
"It's horribly offensive and a disgusting thing," Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the newspaper.
Cingular removed the $2.49 ringtone, among thousands available for downloading from its Web site, Tuesday afternoon, said company spokesman Mark Siegel.
"Needless to say, we deeply regret and apologize for it ever being there in the first place. The ringtone is blatantly offensive," he said.
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