Not Another Whacky Asian Ad

When i visited Taiwan with my wife, in between the very few english shows (mostly movies) and the anime (in japanese with chinese subtitles) there were a bunch of wholly inexplicable commercials.

I donno if this has anything to do with the link.. but there ya go:)
posted by MrLint at 7:20 PM on June 11, 2005

I have to say, that ad kicks ass. I am LMAO. I don't think you need to be "in" on any kind of gag to get a kick out of that ad.

But then again, I thought that Banzai! and Hey! Spring of Trivia! were top of comedy too...
posted by shepd at 7:22 PM on June 11, 2005

I watched the ad a couple minutes ago and haven't blinked since.
posted by gunthersghost at 7:35 PM on June 11, 2005

The add speaks volumes about ignorant Australian racial stereotypes, but I'm sure some advertising execs will get awards for this piece of garbage.

As an Aussie myself who has lived abroad in various countires, the self-congratulatory isolationist attitude of white Australians is truly ugly to behold

Oh, and this is not so outrageuos compared to many of the Asian adds I've seen.
posted by Meridian at 7:40 PM on June 11, 2005

Quick, let's call the PC Police!

Intent is important. If this is in good fun, and does not worsen intercultural relations, then no harm, no foul.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 7:49 PM on June 11, 2005

Some links backing up ther reactions you mentioned would have been helpful. As it stands, this just feels like an advert.
posted by Lusy P Hur at 7:56 PM on June 11, 2005

I watched it with the sound off the first time, and it didn't seem much different to me the second time, with the sound on. Not funny, and not particularly offensive. They seem to be genuinely Asian, so what's the big deal?
posted by interrobang at 7:58 PM on June 11, 2005

posted by Captaintripps at 8:01 PM on June 11, 2005

Hung Le is a funny guy anyway, I've seen him in live shows during the Melbourne Comedy Festival. I imagine he would have had a blast doing this.
posted by tomble at 8:14 PM on June 11, 2005

I find the idea that one culture is not "allowed" to use the tropes and conventions devised in another culture to be very tiresome.

(You better not steall any of those quaint alien folkways. Only those people have the wisdom and true blood to practice them correctly. )

Yes, Australians may use art forms and genres from Japan or China.

The Asians are free, in return, to use any art form or genre from the rest of the world -- as it intrests and inspires them.

This is cultural exchange.

This is what is found with a global outlook, raher than isolated, xenophobic, and seperated peoples.
posted by Axandor at 8:14 PM on June 11, 2005

My reaction? Not wacky enough.
posted by O9scar at 8:19 PM on June 11, 2005

Hands up any Australians who are offended by, say, Crocadile Dundee, or the Simpsons episode where they came to Australia?

Well, to be honest, I thought that particular Simpsons episode was pretty pathetic. But, hey, I just put that down to stupid, ignorant Americans. They can't help it. Silly? Yes. Racist? No. Shit, the same goes for the Simpsons go to Japan, the Simpsons go to England...

So, in regards to this, if Hung Le isn't even allowed to take the piss out of himself and his homeland, who the hell is? The bloke's made a career out of it. Good on him.
posted by Jimbob at 8:22 PM on June 11, 2005

I can't see how Asians would find this offensive at all. The key point is that it is far more likely that they'd find it humorous that Australians think themselves "culturally literate" by creating an overproduced out-of-date parady of a Chinese commercial in Vietnamese.

In Asia, the phrase "dumb hicks" is more likely to be heard in relation to this commercial.
posted by Meridian at 8:36 PM on June 11, 2005

Well, that was.. an ad.
posted by BoringPostcards at 8:45 PM on June 11, 2005

Meridian-I cant really see how anyone would consider themselves "culturally literate" for making this ad. Its a dumb ad making fun of another countries dumb ad. I guess I would have to eat my words if they start winning awards for it :)
posted by phyle at 8:46 PM on June 11, 2005

The South-East Asian diaspora to Australia has been really big (as in percentage changing), so I'd guess they decided that market was large enough to do a commercial for. At least from my point of view (as a Chinese-American) I found it halarious, and most definantly not wacky enough, it felt like they actually toned it down for a more western (European) market.
Satyagraha
posted by thebestsophist at 9:09 PM on June 11, 2005

I have no opinion regarding the post itself, however, let it be known that the one and only appropriate spelling is WACKY. THERE'S NO H, PEOPLE!!!1
posted by stenseng at 9:12 PM on June 11, 2005

Metafilter: There's No H People
posted by BoringPostcards at 9:29 PM on June 11, 2005

Maybe I watch too many Asian movies, but Vietnamese sounds very little like Cantonese or Mandarin...
posted by neckro23 at 9:56 PM on June 11, 2005

Some people have too much time and too much money.
posted by homodigitalis at 10:04 PM on June 11, 2005

I think whether Asian-Australians are going to find it offensive or not will depend on the general social climate. It's really not seriously demeaning, but if the general climate is xenophobic and unfriendly, Asians will be unlikely to find it amusing. If Asians feel that they're a welcome part of Australian society, then it's all good fun.
posted by Loudmax at 10:15 PM on June 11, 2005

Other links as suggested:

Some discussions of the ad here, here , here and here.

There's quite a bit of disquiet about it from Asian people, and quite a bit of confusion about it from non-Asian people -- "it's not Chinese, it's Japanese, isn't it?", says one poster.

A note about how the advertising agency is trying to send up the archetypal asian ad and "re-energise the brand".

If you believe the ad is aimed at Asian people themselves, that's quite a huge leap, considering it mixes Chinese characters and Vietnamese audio and makes very little sense.

I can only believe it was made for non-Asians, which explains why it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. And as far as I know, this is the first time ever an ad has been made in "another language" for broadcast on Australian TV (notwithstanding ads in other languages on the Other Languages Channel, SBS, and perhaps a bit of French in a perfume ad here and there).
posted by AmbroseChapel at 11:39 PM on June 11, 2005

That reminds me of an ad for a softdrink (no connections to Asia at all) parodying wacky Japanese game shows here in Austria a while ago: 6 MB zipped MPG.
I'm not aware of any protests back then, and personally don't see what the big deal is about the Wok ad either.
posted by c3o at 12:16 AM on June 12, 2005

The ad is described as:

a wacky ad that sends up the archetypal Asian ad

but what do Asian-Australians think of it:

"Just thinking about it makes my blood boil. I can understand ignorant non asian people trying to speak like that, but not actual asians. "

"ads like that capture my attention because they are irritating, but they make me never want to buy their product."

" don't find it offensive, but damn it can be annoying."

" ...the practice of picking any old Asian to depict someone from a particular Asian country is a bit off. It suggests that Asians are just one big group with no differences between countries. I think it's a bit offensive actually. Wouldn't you think it odd if a Greek person portrayed someone from an Irish background, for example? Although they are both caucasian?"

etc...
posted by Meridian at 12:21 AM on June 12, 2005

The only part I though was weird is that the actors are very obviously not Japanese/Chinese/Korean.

I'd be more amused if it was a really 'wacky asian ad.'
posted by Amanda B at 1:06 AM on June 12, 2005

I sense the parody focuses on the wackiness of asian ads and not on stereotyping a single-conglomerate view of asian people. But perhaps it also ridicules that recalcitrant anti-asian sentiment held by some white folk (them parodying what we regard as an archetype). I don't find it overly funny but then I've heard so many more outlandish true asian ads. Meh.
posted by peacay at 1:20 AM on June 12, 2005

Just back from the bars (yes, I hit Metafilter after a night of drinking) and watching the ad... pretty funny.
Just back from the bars (yes, I hit Metafilter after a night of drinking - right after Daily Kos) and watching the ad... not the best of the web.
posted by mistersix at 1:58 AM on June 12, 2005

It's no Mr Sparkle.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:36 AM on June 12, 2005

Just back from the bars (yes, I hit Metafilter after a night of drinking) and watching the ad... pretty funny.
Just back from the bars (yes, I hit Metafilter after a night of drinking - right after Daily Kos) and watching the ad... not the best of the web.

Did you really just edit yourself to make yourself sound more edgy - namedropping sites, reversing your opinion - or am I missing something?
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:08 AM on June 12, 2005

It's an ad. Who cares if people "get it" as long as they realize that there's a stir-fry sauce named Wok Star which is probably available at their supermarket since they were able to see the ad in Australia and it had a bit of english at the end. The fact that it's weird enough that you might want to discuss it with others is what makes it a good ad. but foreign culture media parodies are nothing new in the ad world.

P.S. I enjoyed it.

P.P.S. Am I the only one who thought the background music was very similar to the music Homer hears before he decides to join a clown school?
posted by furtive at 6:01 AM on June 12, 2005

From the "wow on the internet people get pissed about the most trivial, unimportant crap" department...
posted by AspectRatio at 6:35 AM on June 12, 2005

From one of those threads Meridian quoted: " ...the practice of picking any old Asian to depict someone from a particular Asian country is a bit off. It suggests that Asians are just one big group with no differences between countries. I think it's a bit offensive actually. Wouldn't you think it odd if a Greek person portrayed someone from an Irish background, for example? Although they are both caucasian?"

No, no I wouldn't, because it happens all the fucking time.

There are differences in the way whitey looks depending on where whitey comes from; just like Asians, just like Africans, just like everyone.

People don't notice that whitey is different or if Asians are different because that's not how people work on the most general level of human interaction, especially if they are unfamiliar with the languages used.

Put a Czech pretending to be Danish, or a Hausa speaker playing a Fula speaker, or a Colombian playing a Mexican, up on the screen and I wouldn't know the difference. That's not xenophobia, bigotry or racialism, it's neutral ignorance.
posted by Captaintripps at 7:09 AM on June 12, 2005

Wouldn't you think it odd if a Greek person portrayed someone from an Irish background, for example?

This is why they call it "acting" and not "being yourself".

Let's say a Japanese ad used German actors to parody an American reality show? Would you consider that racist? I'd consider it pretty f-ing bizarre and fascinating, but not racist.
posted by 4easypayments at 7:33 AM on June 12, 2005

Wouldn't you think it odd if a Greek person portrayed someone from an Irish background, for example?

are you kidding? what white actors limit themselves to only that country from which they can actually prove heritage? Faking accents can be a risk, since if you don't do it well it really sounds bad, but people certainly do it all the fucking time.

that ad seemed kinda dumb and very mildly offensive to me. Nothing to get upset over, but a little annoying.
posted by mdn at 8:18 AM on June 12, 2005

"Ahma gosh-darned 'merkin livin' out a'here in thuh high plains, ayup, an i'sa here to learn ya bout how that Redbone Beef Jerk is the best durned bite fer yer buck. Now i'ma go rustle up mah boomstick an shoot me ah turkey. Yeehaw, vote fer Bush."

The ad was dumb and offensive. It plays off the stereotype that asians speak in goofy high-pitched voices. I learned my lesson about this kind of bullshit plastic racism after that ridiculous Labatt's Blue ad came out. The one with the Japanese business men at the bar shouting, "Bahroo! Bahroo!" I thought it was pretty hilarious, until I found out my friend's wife and son (of asian descent) had been harassed by a group of young white men outside a shopping mall. They flicked beercaps at them, shouting "Bahroo! Me love you long time! Bahroo!"
This ad is stupid and should be yanked. The people who made it should be fired. It pretends to be funny by making light of racial stereotypes.
This kind of bullshit makes my blood boil, especially when I read response comments like Heywood's lovely,
If this is in good fun, and does not worsen intercultural relations, then no harm, no foul.
Just like children's books sponsored by the Nazi propaganda machine, released during the military buildup depicted Jews and big-nosed and loud. Come on! Everybody knows that's what Jews are like! How could that hurt international relations? Everyone knows that Asians are skinny, obnoxious and talk in high-pitched goofy voices!
I'm sick of this archaic nonsense. The ad was obviously written by a throwback and should be yanked. It's a shitty ad - I say this as someone who's worked in advertising for years.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:50 AM on June 12, 2005

That shot right there is probably the most offensive bit of the commercial. Here we see two flips looking at the crazy Asian with a look that could be construed as confused superiority. Which is, I think what the advertisers were trying to play on.

this isn't an American commercial, it's an Australian commercial. And the attitudes of Australians to Asians is different then the attitudes of Americans to Asians. As meridian says:

The add speaks volumes about ignorant Australian racial stereotypes, but I'm sure some advertising execs will get awards for this piece of garbage.

As an Aussie myself who has lived abroad in various countries, the self-congratulatory isolationist attitude of white Australians is truly ugly to behold

If this Ad had been made in the US (well, first of all they would have used Chinese or Japanese, and they wouldn't have included the above shot) then I don't think it would have been very offensive, but Australia is a different country with a different culture.
posted by delmoi at 11:36 AM on June 12, 2005

I would not have predicted this thread would Godwin.
posted by Vulpyne at 12:07 PM on June 12, 2005

(Don't want to derail but...)
Didn't reverse opinion. The message was that the commercial seemed kind of funny to watch (leaving aside the context), but IMHO wasn't the best of the web.
In the same way that I can say a one-liner from movie X is funny, but it wasn't so good that it was worth bringing up to convince someone to see it.
(Didn't realize that DK was hip and edgy and worth name-dropping.)
posted by mistersix at 12:38 PM on June 12, 2005

Australians love their dry digs (ie having a go at someone), it's part and parcel of how we communicate, a gesture of intimacy.

Many americans don't understand this, they think we are paying out people all the time, generally being cruel bastards to both our best mates and our enemies.

This TVC was made with love in homage to a fun genre and aspect of asian culture. The only thing offensive is the graphics, but they are intentionally meant to be that way.

To suggest that australia has worse race relations than the USA, or that this ad is symbolic of australian anglo xenophobia is abolutely fucking ridiculous. This ad is shilling a product that bridges the cultural divide. The more people embracing facets of other cultures (no matter the degree), the better for all of us, no?

Save the outrage for the real issues, people, i implore you.

disclosure: i am an ex-advertising creative living in sydney australia.
posted by elphTeq at 4:00 PM on June 12, 2005

The best Asian commercials ever, particularly the first one on the second row.
posted by Elagabalus at 6:16 PM on June 12, 2005

Click on Video --> Milkmaid Ad
I thought this was funny.
posted by seanyboy at 1:08 AM on June 13, 2005

Australians love their dry digs
It is my experience that Australians can give it out, but they can't take it.
Americans however, seem to welcome ridicule. (And I love you for it)

Plus, you've only got to see the attitude of Australians to the "abo's" and the "wops" to know that Australian Race Relations has a long way to go.
posted by seanyboy at 1:14 AM on June 13, 2005

It is my experience that Australians can give it out, but they can't take it.

Of course a whinging pommy git would say that...

*ducks*
posted by elphTeq at 7:29 AM on June 13, 2005

"...If Hung Le isn't even allowed to take the piss out of himself and his homeland..."

Hung Le is Vietnamese. The ad seems to be making fun of those zany Japanese commercials. Japan and Viet Nam aren't the same country. Japanese doesn't even sound remotely like Vietnamese. From my experiences in Australia, I'm willing to bet the ad is meant to appeal to Aussies lack of respect for their Asian neighbors.
posted by chunking express at 7:58 AM on June 13, 2005

To suggest that australia has worse race relations than the USA, or that this ad is symbolic of australian anglo xenophobia is absolutely fucking ridiculous.

Uhhh... yeah how bout those Aborigines?

I spent 6 months in Australia, and I have to say the racism in regards to the Aboriginal people was a slap in the face.
posted by AspectRatio at 12:36 PM on June 13, 2005

As a part-asian living in Australia, I don't really care much for the commercial.. it's just a commercial innit?

Oh and that Kanton garbage is for lazy ignorant people who can't cook and don't know any better.

Stir fry in a bottle indeed. That's what I'm indignant about.

Look here you go, it's not a completely bone-fide generic "asian" stir fry but it's better than that Kanton corn-flour thickened pan-boil crapulence:

3 small red chillis seeded chopped into long slivers
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Onions/spring onions, finely chopped.
A "bit" of ginger, say a knobs worth, again finely chopped
A liberal amount of sesame/peanut oil depending on the consumptors allergies. (do not use olive oil under any circumstances as it will smoke you out of the house)
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Appropriate vegetables/meat is your decision.

I suggest snow peas, baby bok choy, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms if you can get em or like em, baby corn, carrots (these need to be be chopped thinly no thick pieces), cashew nuts/pinenuts depending on taste, with the meat, usually any meat of your choice cut into sizeable slivers (whatever you can handle with a pair of chopsticks).
You can also add things like young bamboo shoots, water chesnuts etc... but only if you think you'd like em, and some of the canned versions of these are a little iffy.

Quantity of vegies/meat is how much you feel really... most chinese people don't measure crap when it comes to cooking as far as I know.

A splash of Mirin/Sherry
A splash of Soy
A dollop of oyster sauce

First you make sure you have a wide open pan/wok. The most important thing is the heat. Unfortunately electric stoves or those GOD AWFUL electric woks have thermostats in them which never deliver a consistent amount of heat. If you are planning to get those electric woks DON'T. Get a small gas burning camp stove that runs off a little butane aerosol cylinder and a cheap $20 cast steel wok job from Chinatown - you just have to make sure it's always seasoned in oil, even when not in use otherwise it will rust like a bastard on you.

Anyway, good hot (not oil smoking hot, just hot)heat , add your liberal amount of oil, half of the chillis, all of the garlic, onions and ginger as well as the salt and pepper. Now stir fry these until very light brown, remember to keep the ingredients MOVING (always with the goddam moving, you cannot leave a stirfry for a SECOND, you must always keep the ingredients moving around a hot pan, thus this will equate to a STIR-FRY rather than a STIR-STEW) with a wooden spoon and/or a cheap pair of barbecue tongs.

Now add the meat (if you have meat) and any hard cooking vegetables like the carrots and cashews/pinenuts. If you have meat, I suggest splashing a little bit of soy right now, but not too much, just a splash, do not ever fill the pan with liquids, as again you will be stuck with stir-stew, I am so politically against (It offends my delicate nature) Stir-Stews posing as Stir frys as you already are now aware.

After the meat/carrots/nuts are half done, you can then add the rest of the ingredients, now when you do this you have to work fast, you must quickly toss the veggies and meat around spreading the oil, garlic, onions and chillis all around the dish. This should be a pretty dry frying action, no liquid should be present within the pan. Now do this for 5 minutes AT THE MOST. When the vegetables are sealed (coated in oil and are hot, not limp). Only then can you add the Soy, Oyster Sauce and Mirin/Sherry. But remember to err on the side of caution and only add dashes of this stuff to taste. This is where most people get wrong. And if you get it wrong the first time, that's so ok, it's a learning process, the more you do it, the better it becomes. The less liquids you use, usually the better the stir fry is. Anyway, fry up for another 2 minutes at the most and you should be done.

Do not: Cook the veggies/meat to buggery. Limp vegetables are a no no. Once your leafy greens say, your bok choy, choy sum or what have you are a little softer, that is the time to down tools, stop cooking and serve up a meal.

Serve with rice (if I need to tell you how to cook rice you're already lost - LOOK AT THE FREAKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BAG), watch some TV and you too can be totally 733t and bag out eaters of Kantong Crappo on Metafilter yeah?

Yeah.
posted by JGreyNemo at 5:17 PM on June 13, 2005

As a part-asian living in Australia, I don't really care much for the commercial.. it's just a commercial innit?

Oh and that Kanton garbage is for lazy ignorant people who can't cook and don't know any better.

Stir fry in a bottle indeed. That's what I'm indignant about.

Look here you go, it's not a completely bone-fide generic "asian" stir fry but it's better than that Kanton corn-flour thickened pan-boil crapulence:

3 small red chillis seeded chopped into long slivers
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Onions/spring onions, finely chopped.
A "bit" of ginger, say a knobs worth, again finely chopped
A liberal amount of sesame/peanut oil depending on the consumptors allergies. (do not use olive oil under any circumstances as it will smoke you out of the house)
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Appropriate vegetables/meat is your decision.

I suggest snow peas, baby bok choy, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms if you can get em or like em, baby corn, carrots (these need to be be chopped thinly no thick pieces), cashew nuts/pinenuts depending on taste, with the meat, usually any meat of your choice cut into sizeable slivers (whatever you can handle with a pair of chopsticks).
You can also add things like young bamboo shoots, water chesnuts etc... but only if you think you'd like em, and some of the canned versions of these are a little iffy.

Quantity of vegies/meat is how much you feel really... most chinese people don't measure crap when it comes to cooking as far as I know.

A splash of Mirin/Sherry
A splash of Soy
A dollop of oyster sauce

First you make sure you have a wide open pan/wok. The most important thing is the heat. Unfortunately electric stoves or those GOD AWFUL electric woks have thermostats in them which never deliver a consistent amount of heat. If you are planning to get those electric woks DON'T. Get a small gas burning camp stove that runs off a little butane aerosol cylinder and a cheap $20 cast steel wok job from Chinatown - you just have to make sure it's always seasoned in oil, even when not in use otherwise it will rust like a bastard on you.

Anyway, good hot (not oil smoking hot, just hot)heat , add your liberal amount of oil, half of the chillis, all of the garlic, onions and ginger as well as the salt and pepper. Now stir fry these until very light brown, remember to keep the ingredients MOVING (always with the goddam moving, you cannot leave a stirfry for a SECOND, you must always keep the ingredients moving around a hot pan, thus this will equate to a STIR-FRY rather than a STIR-STEW) with a wooden spoon and/or a cheap pair of barbecue tongs.

Now add the meat (if you have meat) and any hard cooking vegetables like the carrots and cashews/pinenuts. If you have meat, I suggest splashing a little bit of soy right now, but not too much, just a splash, do not ever fill the pan with liquids, as again you will be stuck with stir-stew, I am so politically against (It offends my delicate nature) Stir-Stews posing as Stir frys as you already are now aware.

After the meat/carrots/nuts are half done, you can then add the rest of the ingredients, now when you do this you have to work fast, you must quickly toss the veggies and meat around spreading the oil, garlic, onions and chillis all around the dish. This should be a pretty dry frying action, no liquid should be present within the pan. Now do this for 5 minutes AT THE MOST. When the vegetables are sealed (coated in oil and are hot, not limp). Only then can you add the Soy, Oyster Sauce and Mirin/Sherry. But remember to err on the side of caution and only add dashes of this stuff to taste. This is where most people get wrong. And if you get it wrong the first time, that's so ok, it's a learning process, the more you do it, the better it becomes. The less liquids you use, usually the better the stir fry is. Anyway, fry up for another 2 minutes at the most and you should be done.

Do not: Cook the veggies/meat to buggery. Limp vegetables are a no no. Once your leafy greens say, your bok choy, choy sum or what have you are a little softer, that is the time to down tools, stop cooking and serve up a meal.

Serve with rice (if I need to tell you how to cook rice you're already lost - LOOK AT THE FREAKING INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BAG), watch some TV and you too can be totally 733t and bag out eaters of Kantong Crappo on Metafilter yeah?

Yeah.
posted by JGreyNemo at 5:18 PM on June 13, 2005

Damn connection time outs... I guess the second post is for slow learners. *shrugs*
posted by JGreyNemo at 5:19 PM on June 13, 2005

don't worry some whiteys are so bad at asian cooking then need to read it twice......

as for my broad brush stroke generalisations...

Aussies are the "new" Americans . Full of gusto , energy , get up and go BUT can take the piss out of themselves....

but really struggle having the Piss taken out of them.... Just attempt the following phrase in a pub-type-scenario "Aussies are great you are just like Americans" and see how they react....

oh and yeah think they have major race issues building
posted by doogyrev at 5:53 PM on June 13, 2005

I must admit I'm a little surprised at the level of vehemence here, not to say the level of vehemence that people are attributing to me for having posted it. (My first ever MetaFilter post by the way.)

I was primarily interested in it as a cultural phenomenon: it's an ad which the target market cannot in the literal sense understand, by design.

If they're going to get something out of it, it's not from the text or the audio. What they're going to get is a vague impression of foreign-ness and whackiness, associated with Asian food.

I can only imagine what the people at Giant FoodCo Incorporated said when the advertising people showed it to them:

"Uh, it's all in Chinese. Shouldn't we like, have a bit of English just at the end?"

"No, that's the point! People will like the ad, even if it's completely incomprehensible, because it's so whacky! People watch ads like this on the internet all the time, out of choice, just for the whackiness!".

"Really!?"
posted by AmbroseChapel at 6:07 PM on June 13, 2005

Yo Ambrose, there's no animosity at you from me. More animosity to purveyors of crappy products.

As I mentioned earlier... I don't really care much about the commercial. It's really quite silly. And almost incomprehensible and horribly confusing. I don't really care that much.. it's a commercial.

My girlfriend, who is of.... as she subtly puts it, "convict stock", thinks the commercial is deeply annoying, mainly due to the fact it misses the point with most of the "Kantong demographic" its trying to appeal to... mainly lazy, urban hipsters living in the big coastal cities with too little time to chop up and saute herbs and spices to cook with their meat and veg.

The folks at the ministry of mass media and marketing have already appropriated so many other marginal cultures and beaten them over and over until the requisite consumer "I'm so over this craze" backlash, in an effort to seem fresh and new, African American, Latino etc.

It would seem the Jap/China/Korean/Indian "Azian" meld would be flavour of the month. Be prepared to see more and more of watered down versions of Harajuku style clothing and accessories, Traditional Chinese cuts on women's clothing, frenetic and brightly coloured Japanese-styled gameshows and commercials, Bollywood style musicals, music, slow burn, dark shadowy Jap horror etc. It's such a consumer based culture that it's developed its own crazy style which has now quite obviously been latched onto by our trusty souless Marketeers.

Anyway... I guess you have to embrace the madness at some point.

But until then, I'm just going to cease and desist as long as I can hold out and pretend that I there is no such thing as culture. Eat good food when I have the time to cook and shake, shake my tiny fists in the air at the percieved injustices of the world.
posted by JGreyNemo at 10:25 PM on June 13, 2005

Hey JGrey... that was actually some good advice on the wokkin'.... now I gotta go to the store...
posted by AspectRatio at 11:00 PM on June 13, 2005

Not Another Whacky Asian Ad June 11, 2005 7:12 PM Subscribe

Not Another Whacky Asian Ad
June 11, 2005 7:12 PM Subscribe