Tuesday, February 7, 2012

How are these different?

Two advertisements, one political and the other touristic, but both with huge stereotypes bordering on racism. Do you see any difference?
This first one is from an American politician. A Chinese woman is in a rice paddy thanking the US, in broken English, for giving her jobs. Pointing our fingers at Asians for the problems we face at home. Right ...

Then there is this advertisement from the Korean tourism board. Featuring a plethora of national stereotypes this ad, if anything, points out how little the Korean ad agency knows about the world (or how people communicate... would you ever ask someone if their country was really the world's 7th largest exporter?)

So what is the difference? Well, in the US the first video has already started a dialogue. It is in the blogosphere, on Facebook and being reprimanded for using peoples fears and xenophobia as a political tool. On the other hand, this silly ad from Korea was shown to a test market and when the foreign audience responded that it wasn't the best crafted ad and that it didn't sit well they aired it anyways.
Now I need to find myself some bibimbap. 

No comments:

Post a Comment