As soon as I saw this commercial during the Superbowl, I figured John Liu was preparing a press conference about it. Well, that hasn't happened yet, but apparently some people were offended because the cartoon panda had - gasp - a Chinese accent. What's wrong with that? Perhaps they would have preferred a Brooklyn accent? I don't get it.An Ad With Talking Pandas, Maybe, but Not With Chinese Accents
“We never thought anyone would be offended,” said Mr. Gupta, who developed and wrote both commercials himself.
“The pandas are Chinese,” he said. “They don’t speak German.”
Mr. Gupta said he planned to keep running the other Salesgenie commercial, featuring an animated salesman named Ramesh who speaks with an Indian or other South Asian accent.
The reason, Mr. Gupta said, was that “more people seem upset about the pandas than Ramesh.”
9 comments:
I'm with you, Crappy, these commercials did not portray Asians in a derogatory way. There is nothing wrong with a character having a foreign accent.
The media much more frequently perpetuates exaggerated negative stereotypes of people with Brooklyn accents than they do people from Asia.
Puh-leeze!
And I suppose if the Panda was speaking in American/English, Brooklynese, Queensese, Bronxese, Staten Isandese,
Manhattanese, or even Jerseyese,
somebody out there would be complaining
that we're trying to Americanize or westernize Chinese culture! You can't seem to win for trying.
It's time to get a grip on things folks!
Nobody ever bitched about
the vintage "Speedy Gonzalez "character before.
Although now I think somebody would.
I mean it's not like portraying the stereotypes
of "Chopstick Joe & the Dragon Lady"
(of the "Terry & The Pirates" comic strip)
or "Amos 'n Andy" is it ?
After so much American industry went overseas (much to China), one of the most lucrative industries remaining is the "sensitivity" or "offense" industry.
It takes no skill or intelligence to form one of these operations. Very fine-tuned antennae are all that's required.
Opportunity for sensitive offense lurks everywhere. A great sensitivity industrialist - such as John Liu - can spot an offense by anyone, anywhere, any time.
The very successful sensitivity expert never lingers on any one particular offense. Too much light may reveal the many flaws in such sensitivity. So, other organizations such as "Move On" usually urge the Hit and Run sensitivity strategy: Announce - with great fanfare - the seriousness of the offense, the seriousness of the hurt, and how badly delicate sensitivities were injured. Then, when questions are raised, use the industry motto: "Whatever."
Here's my advice for those with such exquisite sensitivities: Go shit in your hats. In each other's hats.
This is partly a result of multiculturalism. Why are we defined by people full of self-loathing?
If you are white, you have no rights. WASP jokes are ok. Hillbilly jokes are ok. White trash jokes are ok.
But nothing else.
Achtung! Vas ist los? Ich kann sprechen Tcherman! I vant mein lawyer!
How about the reggaeton IO Digital Cable ad? Some of my Latino friends find it amusing, though I'm sure the Latino elected officials are mounting press conferences condemning the ad. The politicians will do anything to get attention.
Oh please. It was a stupid commercial with *fake* Chinese accents. Not that the Ramesh commercial was so great. Both are prime examples why CEO's shouldn't write their own ad copy.
There would be no complaints
if John Liu did the voice over !
That mega-press releasing asshole
is stirring things up again behind the scenes,
in lieu of doing his real job
of representing a multicultural district.
Hey, Johnny boy, (or his blog scoping staff)
it ain't all a mono-cultural Taiwanese
monolith.
Now you can jump on the bandwagon
and try to infer that I'm a racist!
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