Explain foreign dialect in TV commercials

[Zeke]

Yeah, explain foreign dialect in TV commercials. The GEICO lizard, or whatever he his, and the Nasonex bee. I assume the lizard is Aussie and I'm guessing the bee is Portuguese. Is this selling?

How about the seemingly British chap (not a cartoon character) with his hoity toity Parliamentary British accent to lure people into calling a company that will represent someone against the IRS?

[rcecale]

WOW! This is scary! I was thinking the same thing, just yesterday!

I remember a few years ago when there was a guy with one of those haughty british, upper-crust, better then thou accents....selling a Lexus!!! Uh, excuse me, but aren't those JAPANESE cars???

Randy

[Zeke]

That one, too, but that upper crust stuff is the same as, " Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?" But for the IRS???

[onlycafe]

i am waiting to see who will be selling stuff using ebonics first.

[nota]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i am waiting to see who will be selling stuff using ebonics first.

ford's hip=hop ADs ?

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i am waiting to see who will be selling stuff using ebonics first.

Micky Dee's....... it's a long list.....

[futuresoptions]

Where I live alot of the commercials are either half in Spanish or fully Spanish.....

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i am waiting to see who will be selling stuff using ebonics first.

Ummmmm....where ya been man?

[75'930cab]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i am waiting to see who will be selling stuff using ebonics first.

Here you go!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=T21f4tGdCRI

[Dan in Pasadena]

Milt, I actually have a bit of a different take on the accent in commercials thing.

As a Hispanic person I notice (as do at least a couple of the hispanic people that work for me and are native Spanish speakers - I am not completely fluent) that most commercials for places like Taco Bell or Del Taco INTENTIONALLY use an announcer that is not a native Spanish speaker. And not only are they not native speakers, they seem to be reading the commercials phonetically and seem to want them to Anglicize Spanish words.

My opinion on the reason for this is that there is an Anglo (for lack of a better label) backlash against Spanish because of illegal immigration so they don't want their product names to sound "too Spanish"....actually, I am being PC, my real opinion is that they do it because the white people making these decisions would say they don't want their products sounding "too Mexican" - which is a lame label of course because Spanish is spoken by peoples from South, Central and North America, the Carribean Islands and Spain.

Believe me there are PLENTY of semi-native speakers (like me) that can sound much more authentic (or at least not as down right LAME as the announcers they use) but would not be difficult to understand like a native speaker might be to an Anglo person. People like me are capable of proper pronunciation without running all the words together like a native speaker. Not to mention the lame, made-up, and frankly semi-insulting words they come up with like "enchiritos" or "queso-cheese".

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by onlycafe

i am waiting to see who will be selling stuff using ebonics first.

Haven't you heard those stupid "Rent-A-Wheel" commercials where the announcer actually refers to the audience (you) as "Dawg"?

Yes, there's an entire sub-population of people that this crap actually appeals to.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Jeff,
Picture that I am most definitely middle aged and slightly gray haired and I was once fooling around with my son and I responded to a question from him with, "THAT'S how I roll, dawg!" He about pooped his pants laughing so hard. We still use it once in awhile when we're trying to crack each other up by sounding stupid!

[Mo_Gearhead]

Notice too ...the lovely Corinthian Leather.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

Notice too ...the lovely Corinthian Leather.

Yes, but Ricardo was being himself. I'm talking mainly about dialect used on voiceovers or for cartoon characters. We all know (I guess) why the chihuahua spoke pigeon Spanish for TB. But, why the sudden interest in the Aussie accent? Is this selling?

RE: the IRS. Maybe Soprano should do a commercial for the IRS fighters.

[DARISC]

The ad people use accents to grab peoples attention, make them take notice, fcuk around with their emotions. Even the maddening musical jingles that manage to bore into our brains like evil parasites and irritate us because the fkucnig jingle plays over and over and over and.... in our heads, DRIVING US TO THE BRINK OF INTENSE FIUNCKG RAGE!!! - sells the product very successfully.

And they (the sulfunova bilfitches that create the ads) know it works EVERY time, everyWHERE, as they take their pitch and APPLY IT DIRECTLY TO YOUR PSYCHE! APPLY IT DIRECTLY TO YOUR PSYCHE! APPLY IT DIRECTLY TO YOUR PSYCHE!

It is working HERE! Look back through the posts and count the product names that have been mentioned. And we're so pissed that we wil NEVER buy those products because of the irritating advertising? Well, millions are spent each month to air these ads - how can thase ad creeps be so stupid, HAHAHAHA.... (life is evil )

[masraum]

Originally Posted by milt

Yeah, explain foreign dialect in TV commercials. The GEICO lizard, or whatever he his, and the Nasonex bee. I assume the lizard is Aussie and I'm guessing the bee is Portuguese. Is this selling?

How about the seemingly British chap (not a cartoon character) with his hoity toity Parliamentary British accent to lure people into calling a company that will represent someone against the IRS?

The bee is supposed to sound like Antonio Banderas, I'm not sure if it's his voice or an impersonator. I suspect they are targetting women who think he's hot or something.

The Lizard is, I think supposed to be a Brit. I find a British accent much more appealing to listen to than if they had used a New Jersey accent or a southern accent.

What's more ridiculous than a talking lizard? A British talking lizard.

"Dirty Mouth? Clean it up with Orbit gum!" She's cute, but I suspect too skinny.

[The Gaijin]

The Geico lizard - gecko in fact - has a "cockney" accent. That is the equivalent of an old school New York working class accent - someting like the Bowery Boys of old.

Kind of like Michael Caine in "Alfie". The loveable rogue.

[rammstein]

I hate the Nasonex bee more than any other commercial cartoon. This is not because of his pain-in-my-ass accent, but because he is such a gaddamn son of a *****. In every commercial, there are people enjoying their day, when that frickin bee flies in the room and gets next to them. He sits there, threatening them with his jagged stinger, just waiting for the opportunity to sting. Then he wiggles his body around, releasing pollen from his collectors on his legs. This causes the people in the room to sneeze, which is immediately followed by a gleeful response from the bastard bee:

"OH NO- SEASONAL NASAL ALLERGY SEEEMPTOMES!!!!"

After nearly acheiving orgasm over the now-suffering humans, the bee proceeds to bust out the Nasonex. He knows that the humans need it to breathe after his dumbass puts all the pollen out there, and sure enough, they use it. They also use it because again, the bee is sitting there with his stinger, threatening them.

"HOORAY- NASONEX SAVES THEE DAY!"

Now the bee pleasures himself while the humans call their doctor and get a lifetime prescription for Nasonex.

Having ruined their day, he will move on to some happy family picnic, and blow dandelions in their faces and then sell them the Nasonex like a glorified crack-dealer.

I hate the Nasonex bee.

[GO DAWG GO]

Milt,

I absolutely noticed this also. Most Home repair (While you were out) and other face lift shows have the carpenters and designers with the British accent??? Most of there work looks like Schlitz too. Lexus, Mercedes Benz. British WTF?

I thought I was the only one who recognized this and perplexed by its rampant usage for no apparent reason. America is getting strange...

[VINMAN]

The snooty high-brow accent really annoys the crap out of me. A British woman or guy shouldnt be pushing an overpriced, rebadged Toyota.