Volkswagen Super Bowl Advertisement: Sean Paul Cosigns Controversial Commercial

Volkswagen's controversial Super Bowl advertisement -- which finds a white office worker speaking with a Jamaican accent and adopting the island's laid-back approach to life -- has critics and pundits up in arms. It's racist, they say.

But not everyone finds fault with the spot, which has lit up social networks since it was uploaded last weekend. The commercial will air nationally during the Super Bowl on Sunday (Feb. 3).

"[It's] just entertainment," reggae star Sean Paul tells TMZ. "To me it's no different than the Italian accents in 'The Sopranos' or the English accent in Guy Ritchie's movies."

In more serious corners of the world, the ad is being slammed.

"Blackface with voices," is how New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow described the ad to CNN.

"[It's] just saying that black people are happy," Barbara Lippert, editor-at-large at mediapost.com, said during an appearance on NBC's The Today Show.

But elsewhere the feeling is that the backlash is much ado about nothing.

Jamaica's Minister of Tourism Wykeham McNeill thinks the ad can only help.

"I think this is a very creative commercial which truly taps into the tremendous appeal that brand Jamaica and its hospitable people have globally," McNeill said in a statement.

Watch the ad and tell us what you think -- is it racist or not?