Comments on: Don’t let the fact that you’re disturbed on multiple levels dissuade you from buying some stuff

By: ana

ana — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:50:58 +0000

The vo5 commercial was located in argentina buenos aires

By: N. Mallory

N. Mallory — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:55:48 +0000

I liked the Home Depot commercial where Santa got pulled over by the police for speeding in his sleigh and the announcer said that Christmas was up to “you” this year. Actually, I kind of did like it…”What’s in the bag?”

But as a kid, I might be worried.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 07:19:15 +0000

Now, if I were an ad-man, my instinct would be to say “Isn’t it kind of squicky to use actual oppression to sell our haircare products? I mean, real people have really died fighting oppression in China; it seems a little callous to suggest they could’ve survived if only they’d had shinier hair.”

Am I wrong about this? I mean, it would’ve been just as easy to do some kind of Logan’s Run/THX-1138/1984 thing.

Unless the ad was actually filmed on location in China.

By: Jimmy Ho

Jimmy Ho — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 04:30:43 +0000

For what it’s worth, this is the video I was referring to (taken from the karaoke VCD). Obviously, only a short part of it was in the commercial (you can see her holding a Pepsi can at the end). Wang Fei’s “English name” is Faye Wong (this is one of her worst songs, not representative at all).

By: Jimmy Ho

Jimmy Ho — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:55:57 +0000

I was surprised as well. After reading the Slate description, I expected something with fake “Asian-like” language and script, like we had (here in France) in an ad for artificial cheese “Babybel” set in an authoritarian country designed to “look like” Burma, China, Indonesia, altogether.
It would be interesting to know where the advertising agency is based (the “nostalgic” communist classroom setting is common in Chinese ads and music videos usually produced in Hong Kong; see the “Pepsi” ad where Wang Fei sings “Jingcai” in her old primary school).

By: Kyso Kisaen

Kyso Kisaen — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:16:48 +0000

In that case, color me shocked. For a commercial I’d not expect that much attention to detail, considering the average Brit (and American, would it air here) would just come away from all that with “somewhere in Asia.”

By: Jimmy Ho

Jimmy Ho — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 01:41:28 +0000

That is a detail, but the Alberto VO5 ad is not located “somewhere in Asia”, it is clearly set in “hardcore communist” (probably Northern) China: the note the boy passes to the girl says “let’s have fun together”, there is a map of China on the classroom wall and a slogan that says (in clumsily written Chinese) “no wind no wave” (a parody of a well-known buddhist expression probably referring here to the “effect” that the hair gel is supposed to create). The teacher’s shouting is partly unintelligible, but the last words are “Get out right away!” (kuai chuqu!) in Mandarin.