Inappropriate Superbowl Commercial

[iowndiscti 141]

I'd hate to bring race into a subject but since America is " The melting pot" of ethnicities, race usually ends up as a major topic.

I have here a Suberbowl commercial that seems harmless at first, but can be considered extremely racist upon reviewing it a second time. Upon first review it seems like a political campaign commercial against American Senator Debbie Stabenow. but upon further inspection i have noted that this commercial promotes some stereotypical Asian traits. Note the "Rural setting" with rice patties in the background. Note the speaker has broken English.

In your opinion, does this commercial promote Stereotypical undertones of Asian's or is this just way over thought?

[Jazzmaster 716]

I don't think it's racist at all. I think it's doing a terrible job of instilling awareness in the American public by creating this irrational fear of the Chinese laughing all the way to their new jobs that they're "stealing" from us.

They're probably getting paid even less to perform these jobs than we'd get paid here...that's the main reason jobs are being sent overseas: cheaper labor. Many of them probably wouldn't mind working here but it's not like they really have a choice.

So this ad, racist? Nah, just really stupid. But eh, politics as usual.

  Edited February 7, 2012 by Yoshiisland  

[Duke87 1,070]

Heh. No, that's just cheesy. The "Chinese" woman looks and sounds so obviously American.

All it is is playing on the fear many Americans have of losing world dominance to China - which has nothing to do with the race of anyone involved, but rather with economics, politics, and sociology.

[BIWDC 2,296]

All it did was give me a good laugh.

[Follarch 326]

Is it bad that I laughed a little?

I found nothing racist about this. Even if you want to target the fact that the woman was speaking in broken English, hey, you try speaking English if it's not your first language. I heard learning English is really hard. Although if the woman was American and was told (paid) to talk that way...then I can see it as being racist. But still, this ad isn't guilty of anything short of being a bad political ad.

[Meg 368]

Is it bad that I laughed a little?

I found nothing racist about this. Even if you want to target the fact that the woman was speaking in broken English, hey, you try speaking English if it's not your first language. I heard learning English is really hard. Although if the woman was American and was told (paid) to talk that way...then I can see it as being racist.

She has no accent. or, to put it more accurately, her accent is generic North American.

Have you tried speaking in another language without an accent that broadcasts what your first language is?

I think she is an American. or possibly a Canadian.

I found the ad to be cheesy, stupid, and rather insulting.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Not Racist but certianly sterotypical, however also brings up a good point, we in the west are losing the jobs that made us rich, to the Eastern World to our peril. BE WARNED!

I guess anything can be considered racist, depending on where you draw the line. Is this causing harm to Chinese people? No! Would the Western World harm China by stopping spending? No!

We don't have these sort of adverts in Britain.

Didn't see it until now as it wasn't shown on the BBC.

Whilst I have no objection to the lives of third-world people being improved, not at the expense of first world people. It doesn't help when business advisors give advice to entrepreneurs to get their inventions manufacured abroad for cheapness. Many of these workers are earning less than a dollar-a-day. Also China's advancement is the cause of China producing growing polution levels because of the number of new Coal Power Stations being built.

Equally why is Britain still giving aid to India, which is rich enough to have Nuclear Weapons and a Space Program and has a growing economy. They could spend their own money on their underclass.

  Edited February 7, 2012 by Merlin of Flyote  

[Ocram's Razr 963]

At least half of all Super Bowl commercials are inappropriate.

[BIWDC 2,296]

I do agree the commercial was a bit stupid,how many commercials aren't though.

I just laughed at how casually she played the part in the commercial,as it was good acting.

It was a poor attempt at winning votes.

  Edited February 8, 2012 by BIWDC  

[Odainsaker 2,134]

All your jobs are belong to us! Too bad it was such blatantly and hokily manufactured Yellow Perilism, with scripted burokken Engurish, and divorced from the real issue it purports to address, all in the campaign service of a small politician.

"Kung Fooled" has hilariously shown us how stereotypes are supposed to be played.

[Easy Bakes 253]

thats tame compared to

[DuskTrooper 314]

She doesn't even look Chinese. She looks more like she's either Vietnamese, Thai, or Cambodian.

[FreewayofFlight 41]

This commercial didn't air in my market, but I didn't see any racism in play. I thought the play on Debbie Spend-it-Now was giggle worthy though.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ ^^ ^^^ ...

I am having a hard time understanding why there should be any discussion of this level of stupidity.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

The husband might be Chinese regardless of the Ethnicity of his wife. Now that I have actually seen the offending commercials, "Spend it Now" uses "My Name is not Durwood" Type 2 and "Yellow Peril" scare tactics to twist the facts to make a political attack ad that more effective.

  Edited February 10, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[Larks2242 251]

The Clint Eastwood Chrysler has gotten more heat as being a possible pro Obama ad as an undertone.

[Cobraroll 138]

While the alleged racism certainly troubles me, I also don't like the

1) Direct name-calling of another specific politician. That's a personal attack, which has NOTHING to do in politics. Critisize the political line, not the person, if you absolutely want to critisize.

2) Fact that this sort of thing is allowed to air at all. The one with the most money to buy poop to fling at others, gets the most appeal.

3) Fact that the guy says nothing about what he intends to do in office. This is not in any way advocating a cause, it's direct one-sided critisism of another politic.

Is this what you call democracy in action?

[Alejandro24 575]

I didn't found nothing rascist or innapropiate, except the accent of the woman, but that's a stereotype (and could be a reality, I've never seen an asiatic people pronounce correctly the spanish letter R). Usually I ignore that details of the advertising, because is only that.

Now, in the other side, the US-americas usually don't look at the reality and preffer stereotypes because for they is more easy to understand... do you see? Another stereotype!

In another way, the stereotypes causes conflicts. Just see at twitter the hashtags #MexicanPeopleBeDoingStuffLike and #GringosBeDoingStuffLike. That was a war of tweets describing only stereotypes and not reality.

  Edited February 10, 2012 by Alejandro24  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The problem with all of this is that too many bits have been wasted in data space on it. Political blowing is mostly beneath notice.

[Equinox 1,209]

I was going to post an insightful comment here, but I've decided to be succinct.

You know what I hate?

Super Bowl ads.

[_marsh_ 1,117]

The actress playing the woman in the commercial has apologized for it.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/asian-actress-apology-hoekstra-ad.html