Sad Commercial Choices
As upset as I sometimes get over discovering “Foreigner” costumes for Halloween on sale in stores, or various shows that pull the classic tengu style “Western” proboscis stereotypical gag make-up out of their hats (回転SUSHI on はねるのトビラ for instance), and when my students mock my native tongue (or my attempts to speak in Japanese). There are some things that I can laugh about pretty easily – I’m not an uptight person about this stuff most of the time. Having said that, some things, like the above mentioned items, really rub me the wrong way. I recently came across a few videos of American made commercials that made me shake my head. I’ll host them here, like I’ve been doing recently. Read on for the videos.
I was really embarrassed by this commercial, apparently from 1959, for Jello Brand Gelatin, when I stumbled onto a Retro Commercials post (see hat tips). The faux-Chinese accent on the English is…yikes. Ha ha.
You’d think that after the Rosie “Ching Chong” O’Donnell debacle and the over the top responses it evoked, that commercials like that Jello one would no longer be seen as…a positive viable economic boost. You’d be wrong, though. Enter a commercial aired during this year’s Superbowl by Sales Genie. They paid top dollar to get this shown.
That’s some mighty fine progress we’ve made in almost 50 years, folks. Sigh. When I saw this one, though, I remember thinking “but Carlos Mencia isn’t even Mexican…I heard somewhere that he’s half Hungarian…he’s known for pulling the wrong stereotypical accent.” Leave it to me to over analyze a lame commercial and a C-list comedian’s schtick. Oh well. This one not only goes for the accents thing, but it makes American women look bad too. (Although I am not disagreeing with the notion that accents can be really appealing. Just this portrayal. Ha ha.)
I’m not a guy who goes in for mandatory sensitivity training. But I do think that the age of “foreignness equals funniness” is over. It’s kind of immature, slightly ignorant, and bad taste. Not because I’m a hound for political correctness, but because my eyes are much more open to it nowadays. Mistakes are funny in second languages. Mannerisms are funny in second languages. Cultural confusions can be funny. I’d even say that I rather enjoy a good stereotypical joke. But merely being foreign and having an accent…isn’t that hilarious. At least not to me anymore. Lame choices, guys. You can be funnier – about funnier things, too. (Especially when you’re not limited to actually selling your product, but to making your company’s commercials a product on their own, like the Superbowl commercials!) Oh well. Both articles linked to below are worth a gander, by the way.
Hat tips: Dan Lorenz (Cracked), Gawker.
