Well, I don't know about you but the "highlight" of my Super Sunday was being transported back to 1951 courtesy "SalesGenie.
com" and their stunningly anachronistic ad campaign. If you happened to miss it – and really, after you see them you'll wish you did – check them out here. Or rely on my summary.
In the first, a brown person with a Kwik-E-Mart accent needs sales leads so he can provide for his 8 children (them Indians don't know when to stop fuckin'!) Apparently dissatisfied with the damage inflicted upon the national psyche, the company followed it up with a Panda bear with a Charlie Chan accent. No, actually, Charlie Chan's manner of speech is downright eloquent compared to this ad.
I mean, this is the "me so solly!" kind of Chinese accent. The kind of thing that, you know, we thought we were past.
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Cue Krusty the Klown with plastic buck teeth and a flapping dickey. Thank God this company ran out of funds before they could run their "Gorillas on welfare who eat ribs and watermelon" ad.
If you're not entirely clear on whether or not we have a problem with race in this society, read the comments on the site hosting the vids. I think this is my favorite:
Where's the racist part? So it's come to it that in America you have to actually sound like a white guy now too? No minorities at all huh?
Yes, that is exactly the point. We want him to sound like a white guy, as opposed to how he sounds in the ad – like a Chinese guy.
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That's totally what Chinese people sound like. It's uncanny. I close my eyes and feel like I'm in Chinatown. Go ahead, read all the comments. I dare you. This ad was aimed at an audience of semi-literate white people from the sticks/suburbs who watch approximately 14 hours per day of Fox News. And they succeeded.
You know what really bothers me about this? It's not fucking funny. I am a man who enjoys offensive humor. Ethnic voices? Funny. But funny when they A) are done with some sense of irony, sarcasm, or commentary and B) approximate what an actual human being sounds like. Seeing neither of those characteristics here, it's just offensive. And if it's offensive it better at least be hilarious. Instead it merely provided an opportunity for my jaw to drop and to ask one of my fellow viewers if I really saw just that.
g says:
the ads were written by the CEO, an indian dude.
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/02/04/worst_super_bowl_ad/
cerb says:
Even though I was falling down drunk during the game (watching Air Force One with a buddies and some beers is a recipe for disaster), I was still astounded by how racist and horrible the Salesgenie commercials were. Truth be told, almost all of the commercials were either horrible or just not funny. The only I really liked was the Audi, and that was mainly because the car spontaneously gave me an erection.
Peggy says:
Yeah, the response where I was watching was stunned silence, followed by someone asking, "…was that racist?"
I was like, DUDE. YES. Are you serious??
Jude says:
y'know it's racist by their inclusion of a clear, English speaking panda "genie". If all things were equal, they wouldn't need one in the ad. They'd all enunciate at the same level.
JDryden says:
Not to divert traffic away from G&T, but Cracked.com just ran an article on such quaint portraits of ethnicity in Olde Tyme Advertisementery of the Golden Age of Television; check out #4:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15852_5-retro-commercials-companies-would-like-you-forget.html
Yes, it's nice to know how far we've come since those adorable days when life was simpler in a world that carried no troubled conscience about blatant racism–and did anyone else notice that the 'wife-panda' was a layabout shrew? I guess that whiff of misogyny gives the ad that extra soupcon of horror.
Ed says:
Yeah, I love Cracked and I love that list. I'm pretty sure that the Asian Jello clip is my favorite. Baby wants some "glape" Jello!
It's stunning to compare the two commercials from Sunday to that black-and-white ad, realizing that in 60 years we apparently have not made any progress.
j tyler says:
Peggy should tell the person that if you have to ask "was that racist?" Then it was racist.
But Ed, you left out the best part of that comment you quoted…that it is ok because the writers, actors, animators, etc are asian! Don't you know Ed? It is only offensive if a white person says it.
pmayo says:
Don't forget the Taco Bell add where two young yuppies were squired around their office by a roving band of mariachi.
I had exactly the same reaction to the salesgenie.com ads. It's as iff the ripped jeans and Abercrombie hat crowd has taken over the ad industry.
Ed says:
As someone who spends all of his time on a college campus, I can comfortably assure you that Advertising is the major of choice among the Greek system now and for approximately the past decade.
I guess it's for people who think they're creative but aren't smart enough to get a journalism degree. Or something.
Nick says:
I especially liked the first half of the comment left by the "where's the racist part?" guy, regarding the fact that it was okay because the commercials were made in "the Orient."
Anon. says:
Yeah, and don't forget that 'the ads did their job, 'cause we're all talking about them.' Translation: So long as it's market-sanctioned and succesful toward acheiving its blind utilitarian ends, it must be OK.