Letters to the Editor
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Their ad last year. . .
supposedly sucked, but their sales saw a real jump the very next day.
Can any other SB advertiser say the same, in any year?
I also found those ads offensive, but my usually pretty sensitive freinds didn't even remark about it.
SalesGenie will probably make money off those ads. For them, that is the reason the ads were aired.
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At least there were no stereotypes
Of fat drunken clueless childish borderline retarded selfish white American men. No no, we never see that on Television, do we?
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Correct me if 'm wrong, but...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Vin Gupta an Indian? Wouldn't that place such an ad firmly in the ranks of self-depreciating ironic humor?
At the very least, it is hard to imagine an Indian wanting people to be prejudiced against Indians.
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Appreciate the info.
I'm not sure that I'd describe equal-opportunity negative stereotyping as progress per se, but I get the point. I only saw the panda commercial, and honestly, could not believe it was accepted by the network or that someone would spend that much money to air it. At any rate, I appreciate learning a little bit about who/what was behind the ad I saw.
Speaking of stereotyping and business, I wonder how the disgusting t-shirts Abercrombie and Fitch sold in the relatively recent past (likely for the same reasons as Mr. Gupta's base advertisements), and the media attention that garnered A&F, ultimately impacted that company's bottom line?
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Know your audience
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Salesgenie sell its product to salespeople? Aren't a large number of people who work in sales sleazy douchebags (that's been my experience, at least)? Seems like such ads would appeal pretty well to the aforementioned sleazy douchebags.
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Hundreds of millions?
I'm having trouble tracking down stats, but do we know that the global audience for the Superb Owl (TM) is, as you say, in the "hundreds of millions"? I suspect 90-some per cent of viewing households are in the US, with the rest being made up of American expats and Europeans mourning their NFL Europe teams.
Point being, if bad-taste ads like these are broadcast (I saw the panda one--it literally made my jaw drop), at least our already tattered reputation overseas won't be shredded too much further.
Um, will it?
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Lame and boring
I was amazed at how lame and boring MOST of the commercials were. I guess the bragging rights is the whole game now, and it answers the question, "Why would they pay THAT much to air THIS crap?!
BTW, I found the Planters nuts commercial was also insensitive, offensive, and worst of all STUPID.
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Only Seven
Ramesh the Sales Guy only had seven kids. It is Apu that has eight. Their similarities must have confused you.
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how many kids?
once you get past two, I can't keep count.
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Vinod Gupta doesn't represent all indians
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Vin Gupta an Indian? Wouldn't that place such an ad firmly in the ranks of self-depreciating ironic humor?
At the very least, it is hard to imagine an Indian wanting people to be prejudiced against Indians.
This one of the most ridiculous posts I have read, just because one Indian takes a stereotypical view(for whatever reason) of Indians all Indians condone it? Is the representation of Indians in the media so limited that one view from an Indian American which is so off base it is accepted as conventional thinking of all Indians?
Speaking as one Indian American I found the ad appealed to the worse stereotypes of us in American culture and that went for the Panda/ Asian ad as well.
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I can't wait for next year ....
... when Salesgenie will appeal to salespeople by reenacting Pacino's "fuckin' Patel!" rant from "GlenGarry Glen Ross" during the Superbowl.
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Well...maybe it's a good thing.
Perhaps the fact that minorities, or at least groups other than white men, are now making fun of stereotypes and seeing that they were more about perception than reality, just as we all have, we can now get over it, sorta like how we've become desensitized over sexual issues, for the most part. I'd look forward to the day when the shrill screams of disbelief are not longer the distractions they've become when-ever someone flops at humor that's based on ethnic or racial characteristics.
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I got all you beat...
...I've gotten to the point where EVERYTHING offends me now. My days are now spent curled up in the fetal position, a quivering oversensitized blob of flesh terrified of exposing myself to anything beyond my front door, or on TV or radio or print.
PLEASE someone STOP all this offensiveness so I can re-join society!
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Accents
I could be wrong, because I only vaguely saw/heard the ad at the time it was aired and I am not going to do the heavy lifting that would be required to ensure this post is accurate, but didn't the panda bears' accents sound pretty much exactly like the Laotian couple, Khan and Minh Souphanousinphone, Hank Hill's neighbors in King of the Hill? Doesn't that double-triple complicate the bad taste scoring system? If it's true? Which I'm not going to check?
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Crawling out from my own fetal position to say this:
The commercials were aimed at overgrown frat boys getting drunk and stupid and loud together in front of their tvs. The commercials have generated many, many millions worth in publicity coverage that the company never could have paid for in advertising dollars.
Ergo, success!
Going back under the covers now.