G.M. and Mountain Dew Pull Ads after Criticism for Racial Insensitivity

I found this article on the New York Times website, and it shows that you have to be careful when putting together ad that may be insensitive to certain audiences. G.M. just pulled back an ad for the Chevrolet Trax, a small utility vehicle that is sold in countries including Canada, that takes place in the 1930s and features a modern remix from a song of that era that included references to Chinese people using phrases like "ching ching, chop-suey."Advertising standards  Canada advised GM to remove the lyrics from the song and just keep the melody. GM decided that the best decision would be to remove it from the canada TV completely and from the online websites in Europe where it was also airing.

Mountain Dew's ad featured a battered waitress, bandaged and on crutches, trying to identify the suspect who had hurt her when she ran out of Mountain Dew to serve. The lineup included African-American men, with names like LBoy, Tiny and Beyonte,  and a goat. The waitress, who happens to be white, struggles with the decision while a menacing voice over for the goat claims that he did it. The goat threatens her and she backs out of the identification process too scared to make a choice. 

Its easy to see how these two ads can be perceived as insensitive or hurtful to people. Race is not something that can be taken lightly at this present time. 

Why would a company even take a risk at developing an ad that could be insensitive to race? How could they view that as a good risk to take?