Panda Rage
Stuart Elliott writes in The New York Times of people who were offended by commercials with a Panda talking in a Chinese accent:
Vinod Gupta, the chairman and chief executive of InfoUSA in Omaha, the parent of Salesgenie.com, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that a commercial featuring two animated pandas speaking with what were intended as Chinese accents would be withdrawn.“We never thought anyone would be offended,” said Mr.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.”
Still, “if I offended anybody,” Mr. Gupta said, “believe me, I apologize.”
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.”
“People have been making fun of my accent for years,” said Mr. Gupta, who described himself in the interview as half-Indian and half-Jewish. “And I love it.”
In the salesman spot, the sales leads that Ramesh finds on Salesgenie help him satisfy his demanding boss at Acme Widgets and win a sales contest. The spot appeared in the first quarter of the game on Sunday. In the pandas spot, the Salesgenie leads help the animals keep open their store, called Ling Ling’s Bamboo Furniture Shack. It appeared in the third quarter.
Link to video is here.
If I call you a panda, is that some sort of slur? Can somebody please explain why a panda with an accent (French, Italian, Chinese, whatever) is offensive? My problem with the commercial? It's not funny, and the animation sucked.
The only reason most people get offended by a commercial is cause they think they can get money out of it. The exceptions are certain commercials during the time children watch tv, on free broadcast tv. And of course all fundies all the time.
Shit I'm tempted to get offended by the Hillary add that bastardized my mother language. Amy you could get offended by it as well and set up a slush fund to cover your employees health care.
vlad at February 8, 2008 5:31 AM
I have a couple of Chinese friends who thought the commercial was cute - go figure. o_O
Flynne at February 8, 2008 5:36 AM
Oh, brother. You can't take a deep breath in America anymore without someone taking offense at it. I did think it was funny. But I have a very strange sense of humor. I think Bill Cullen (old game show host with a corny sense of humor) is funny.
“People have been making fun of my accent for years,” said Mr. Gupta, who described himself in the interview as half-Indian and half-Jewish. “And I love it.” Man was that attitude ever refreshing. People need to learn to be able to laugh at themself again.
I love the commercial where Peter Frampton, once known for his beautiful locks and now near entirely bald, sings "I wanted to pull my hair out." No wonder I still find you sexy, Peter. Baby, I love your way.
Donna at February 8, 2008 6:27 AM
What bothered me was the panda psychic they called for help didn't have the accent. If the psychic had the accent, then the whole thing amounts to "pandas are Chinese, so pandas speak with Chinese accents". But with the psychic speaking unaccented English, the accent on the other two just seems gratuitous.
The result is that we had two Chinese business owners who were on the verge of bankruptcy, they desperately turn to a psychic hotline for help, and the knowledgeable American psychic who saves their business and admonishes them not to eat their inventory.
I don't think SalesGenie/Mr. Gupta wanted to send the message, "Dumb Chinese are saved by informed American," but I don't have any surprise that people heard it that way.
Lunatic at February 8, 2008 7:04 AM
Weird. What offended me about both ads is that the lists of "sales leads" they are peddling probably contain my name and number and I can expect a new flood of dinner-time calls.
martin at February 8, 2008 7:05 AM
Oh puh-lease. I want to know who's life is so unfulfilling that they have time to sit around and analyze commercials to be offended by.
Really, if you are that bored people, I have loads of things you could do here with me in MD. No offense. :)
dena at February 8, 2008 7:36 AM
Check out Mr Gupta's relationship with the Clinton's, his "discretionary" use of INFOUSA company funds, and the Dolphin LLC lawsuits. He is one of the people Obama was referring to when he call Ms Clinton the "Senator from Punjab".
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/02/offensive-super.html
eric at February 8, 2008 7:54 AM
-or-
http://www.blogsofwar.com/2007/05/27/guptagate-bill-and-hillary-clintons-ties-with-vinod-gupta-raise-suspicion/
eric at February 8, 2008 7:58 AM
Well, I'm offended because the commercial offended them.
kg at February 8, 2008 9:17 AM
OMG. Please. People are Waaaaay to offended these days. It is out of hand. Get a life and sense of humor. FGS.
Melody at February 8, 2008 12:38 PM
My feeling is that it wasn't the use of Pandas or the message of commercial, it was really the voices (plus the fact that it wasn't funny at all). If they had used Chinese voice actors who had slight accents, I think the commercial would have been fine. Instead they went the extra mile to make the Chinese Pandas sound like crappy stereotypes - basically saying "Look at me. I speaky Chinee!"
Is it that big a deal? No, not really. But in this day in age, do we really need people speaking in bad racial stereotypes? No, not really.
flighty at February 8, 2008 1:10 PM
Well of course Pandas speak with a Chinese accent, as do siamese cats. Scottish terriers speak with a scottish accent. English bulldogs all sound like Churchill and chiuauas speak with mexican accents. Pigs stutter and rabbits have a brooklyn accent. Roosters sound like southerners.
Good grief what a waste of time.
winston at February 8, 2008 1:41 PM
Well, unless you think there's something wrong with being Chinese, what's the problem? Don't laugh, but I love the soundtrack from Beauty & The Beast (wish Howard Ashman were still alive), and there's this piece with the tableware getting up to dance...one has a French accent. Is this somehow offensive?...I mean, there must be some French people who aren't foodies (or, if you want to put it in a negative way - not that I would - food obsessed).
I like accents. I generally find them funny and charming.
Amy Alkon at February 8, 2008 1:42 PM
Good point, Winston.
But, rabbits...Brooklyn?
Amy Alkon at February 8, 2008 1:44 PM
"But, rabbits...Brooklyn?"
Bugs Bunny of course. (who in fact is one of the greatest comedic characters of all time. Those old looney toons still crack me up)
winston at February 8, 2008 1:47 PM
Oh for cripes sake! Pandas are CHINESE!! If they were speaking English, then one would expect them to speak with a Chinese accent, right!! Is it objectionable that a Chinese person would speak accented English?!
Jay R at February 8, 2008 1:54 PM
Is this microphone on?
http://meta.ath0.com/2007/05/21/business-ethics-and-telemarketing/
PS- On way to get a buzz is to be the worst, most offensive commercial the network will allow on air. Like from 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0pIQOCbS3Q
eric at February 8, 2008 5:17 PM
eric of course you didn't mean it this way, but it's great to know athat anyone is watching over these people at all.
Crid at February 8, 2008 5:35 PM
If the psychic had a Chinese accent, then I'd agree it's a case of hypersensitivity.
But the "Pandas = Chinese, Chinese = Chinese Accents, so Pandas = Chinese Accents" argument doesn't fir the content of the ad; the psychic is a panda without a Chinese accent.
Rather, we have a "Dumb = Chinese Accents, Chinese Accents = Chinese, so Dumb = Chinese" and a "Smart = American Accent, American Accent = American, so Smart = American".
I think the SalesGenie ad was innocently done; the most likely explanation for the American accent was that they wanted the product pitch to be readily comprehensible at high speed. But I'd probably have a harder time with perspective if I had ever been called a "dumb gook".
So, are the objectors being sensitive? Yeah. But they aren't being hypersensitive.
Lunatic at February 8, 2008 5:49 PM
Unfortunately there are too many people who spend their lives looking for something to "offend them."
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