CNN reports about eMobile monkey commercial and Obama
American news network CNN has picked up the story of the eMobile commercial that angered non-Japanese bloggers by having eMobile’s official mascot run a campaign similar to Barack Obama’s:
The report is heavily biased towards the view that the commercial was bad and needed to be pulled, but it does admit these two truths:
- None of the Japanese people shown the commercial by CNN saw any link to Obama.
- eMobile has received no complaints from Japanese customers.
Sometimes a monkey is just a monkey. To the Japanese people that made the commercial and the Japanese viewers watching it, the commercial was just about eMobile’s cute Japanese monkey mascot running a campaign of change. The monkey is not “portraying” Barack Obama, he’s just using Obama’s campaigning style to draw people to eMobile’s products. The commercial has nothing do to with race.
It’s sad that some groups and the international media are focusing so much attention on a commercial that has nothing to do with race when there are actual issues of discrimination and racism in Japan that they could be focusing on instead.
[via BlackTokyo]
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Some people are so touchy!
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Touchy? Until you walk a mile in a black persons shoes, dont judge on what we find offensive.
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You is this “we”??
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This reminds me of the UK Heinz Deli Mayo Ad that got pulled because Americans were complaining.
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Go ahead, and protest, until all the Japanese view the black people and a monkey in the American way.
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Is protesting this commercial really going to make the Japanese start seeing blacks as monkeys? Somehow that’s not right…
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In fact some blogger say that they have learned that the black people are compared with a monkey for the first time because of this protest.
In order not to repeat this kind of ad, it is necessary to explain why they are protesting and that will make it necessary to tell the Japanese that the black people are (wrongly) linked with a monkey, of which the Japanese were ignorant.
By denying the prejudice, ironically they are indirectly spreading the prejudice .
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well, CNN seems to bias the report from the beginning. If I understand correctly, EM was not *specifically* portraying Obama, but melding the whole Obama campaign-style with their mascot.
anyway, I think it’s funny at the end of the vid where you see an old woman walking by fanning herself with an eMobile fan! perhaps some “guerilla marketing” by eMobile..??
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Everyone should be racist the same way. Then there wouldn’t be such confusion. XD
^I also noticed that lady at the end with the fan. lol
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Those black males who live in Japan must not have ever seen any of the other e-mobile commercials.
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Everyone thought the commercial was cute, not racist. They also think “Sambo” is cute too. What does that say about about how Japanese view foriegners? They have no clue!
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What makes you think they need a “clue” about your delicate sensibilities? Worry about yourself, child!
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They have no clue because…? They have their own society and value system that is not the same as the one wherever you come from? They look at things in a different context then you? Why are the Japanese clueless?
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I think that it’s valid to criticize those who would impose their beliefs on a country that shouldn’t necessarily follow the same way of thinking – cultural imperialism, as you will.
However, marketing has taken on new context in this age of globalization. Companies don’t want negative images to be associated with their products, even if only directed at a domestic audience, and as such, they are extremely sensitive to complaints.
Take a look at this advertisement, for example. This is the ad for the Swedish brand Absolut that was published in Mexico. This ad received a tremendous amount of criticism from Americans and the ad was pulled.
Maybe we are all a little too sensitive. I’m sure the US is leading the way in imposing judgment on other countries, but strictly from a marketing standpoint, the risks of continuing an ad campaign with a negative stigma can be quite severe. Some say even bad publicity is good publicity, but e-Mobile has the right to continue or discontinue the campaign. It’s important to determine financially how much negative publicity you can afford to receive.
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Good points, and I suppose long-term if e-Mobile has plans to expand into the US market they would need to worry about their image there. But by the same token, it is a domestic ad for Japanese consumption, and it bothers me that the sensibilities of a certain number of a certain group of foreigners be given priority over the whole. I am seeing a disturbing trend here – Dunkin’ Donuts pulling ads because a few extremist right-wing talking heads accuse them of “supporting terrorists” just because of the scarf the spokesperson was wearing; Heinz pulling an ad because a few “moral” people objected to showing two men kissing – “what if the children saw it?” Well, the commercial has already been rated such that it can’t be shown during children’s programs because mayo is a “health hazard, so how about taking responsibility for what your kids watch instead of nannying me?!?…. It is just getting ridiculous. Folks seem to be looking for reasons to be offended, and then demanding ads be pulled, words banned, who knows where it will all stop.
And this time, with a group saying “this is unacceptable in my culture, therefore you people in another culture have to change to deal with my culture’s rules”, I mean it is just too much. What do you think would happen if Indians demanded the US, UK or Australia pull all beef advertisement? I’ll tell you what would happen, they’d be told where to get off, and rightly so. Double standards. Gotta love ‘em.
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Double standards would definitely rear their ugly head if the US was told to do this or that, but I still think this all comes down to a financial standpoint.
I am personally quite sick of the amount of complaints and criticism being thrown around, but with the introduction of viral marketing, we are already seeing companies use negative publicity to gain more exposure. For those products that are particularly family-friendly, however, it’s pretty much impossible to ignore large segments of your consumer base through a negative ad campaign. Family friendly still essentially means religious conservative in the US, and that is going to severely limit your ability to go against the flow.
With the US dollar as weak as it is right now, it is only a matter of time before more marketing agencies from Europe start promoting ads that would never gain acceptance in the US – and not care about the backlash from consumers.
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Black Sambo is a foreign character with his own baggage. It’s an entirely different issue.
I don’t even know where to begin. I am starting to understand the idea of “Japan bashing” more and more now. I think its incredible that the majority of the voices here are 1. not Japanese 2. expecting an entirely foreign culture to know the ins and outs of their cultural faux pas and 3. acting as though this was such an outrageous display of insensitivity.
Clearly, there have been instances where this monkey has been used before and as this cultural hit piece from CNN states, monkeys are looked at differently than in Japan. I really can’t understand the hysterics over this. I can’t believe people are so culturally self-centered as to think people in Japan should be as racially conscious as people people who live in a completely mixed nation. Its an absurd notion.
An overblown case of cultural imperialism.
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Come on! Really? You find that offending? The little monkey is their mascot! They aren’t purposely using the monkey to portray Obama.
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Amen!
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It’s fascinating how (movements on) the blogoshere can blow things out of proportion. I hope that this CNN report and everything that led up to it doesn’t encourage blame on the Japanese people just because of one commercial produced by one company. They didn’t do a thing, you know. After all, the good professor says at the end of the report that Japan (the entire country?) has to understand things about the etiquette of public discourse and that cluelessness in not an excuse. Bad Japan! Bad! You inexcuseably clueless people!
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Good point about the professor. And that guy is the director of Asian studies at Temple? Good grief – I wonder what he is teaching his students.
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thats why he’s teaching at Temple Japan and not at, you know, a respectable university.
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Haha. Sick burn! I didn’t know that Temple Japan had a bad rep.
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My thoughts exactly. The way he said such foolishness while maintaining that smug expression was breathtaking.
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The people who call it “Cultural insensitivity” are actually the ones who are culturally insensitive, I think.
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Yeah, a monkey is just kawaii, cute, here in Japan..
I mean, they could have used a pig, a chicken, an earthworm or a locust.. they just see the cuteness in any animals.. probably this is possible just in Japan
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Really? I understand an earthworm, but c’mon, a locust?
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C’mon a locust??… イナゴちゃん!
give a look: http://www.tabitabi-taipei.com/more/2007/0410/
oh, just in Japan & Taiwan probably.. maybe korea too
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No surprises from the “unbiased” media, again.
More free pro-Obama “news”. What a shock. >:(
Poor, poor (upper middle class, half-white, private/prep school and Ivy League educated) Obama is oppressed by racists. Don’t be a racist! You must vote for Obama!
He really is about “change” by the way.
Change, change, change!
People as easily manipulated as this shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Thankfully, many of them can’t figure out how to use a voting machine.
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I think you are going over the top a bit now. This really has nothing to do with Obama or his policies, but rather a few peoples’ over-reaction to a commericial in Japan. I don’t think the people who objected to this commericial are being manipulated by anything other than their own warped sense of what constitutes discrimination. In this form it is a distinctly American trait.
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Not so much about the COLOUR of one’s skin, but more about how THIN is one’s skin.
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Ethnocentrism at it’s finest!
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“Sometimes a monkey is just a monkey”
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
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A couple of points I’d like to bring up,
(1) Is there evidence that Japanese have historically portrayed black people as monkeys insinuating they are sub-human?
(2) The commercial was capitalizing on the Obama trend, not ridiculing the man. The monkey itself is the mascot for the company, and was not created in Obama’s image. I’d like to also point out that Pan-kun the monkey dresses like Japanese school children, often. There is no insinuation that Japanese school children are monkeys. The humor (for some, it’s not to my taste) is that the monkey is in human clothes, not that the human is a monkey.
(3) Why is there no uproar when Bush is not only portrayed as a monkey, but is explicitly called one?
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Because Bush is an idiot.
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As to 1.
What I have heard from Japanese is they think we (Westerners) refer to them as monkeys. I posted this on the last thread about this issue, but I took this picture in a Tokyo mall.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83844139@N00/2366958484/
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Those people need to fuck off. I’m sorry, but how long can you play the victim? Black, white, yellow, green, purple, what the fuck ever – at this point, there is REALLY so little racism in many non-us countries that they don’t even realize when they set off the touchy hypersensitive idiots who always have to remind them of it.
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Man… those people sure like to whine about nothing……………..
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Japanese people just love monkeys.
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Perhaps, but let’s not also forget that the word monkey is also a commonly used insult. Also, when racists (and to clarify to nationalists, I don’t think Japan is more racist than any other developed country) usually describe black people in Japan, gorilla/monkey is often part of the description. Again, this is not singular to Japan, which is why some black people are sensitive to it.
However, I agree that the ad was not intended for any hidden messages, the director probably just looked at a recent example of a popular American political speaker and parodied it. Obama being black was just a coincidence and side effect of being a very popular person!
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I googled 「黒人 猿 」
I’ve found an thread on this topic at the notorious 2channel.
http://namidame.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/news/1215063383/-100
For instance,
Wait a second, people who descriminate come up with Mr Obama, looking at the moneky.
Hey PM Fukuda, visit USA immidiately and show them your face to let them know what the real monkey looks like.
Isn’t that Fukuda and Kimtaku?
Japan treat a moneky too well.Untalented trash monkey can become a
prime minister.
The fact that they have an idea that a monkey = black people is wrong in the first place.
Regretably it(the moneky) was Fukuda.
US lost in tears. lol.
Talking of a monkey, it is yellow monkey. Japanese have been called yellow monkey. don”t nitpick.
Japanese have no concept that black people are monkeys.
For us, prime minister is a monkey, though.
PLANET OF THE APES were modeled after Japanese.
The Japanese have no bad image about monkey in the first place and it hold for a moneky as well as animal in general・・・・well do western people draw the line distinctively between man and animal?
Human being ＞a dolphin＞a whale＞a dog＞a cat…..＞kangaroo, monkey ,livestock insect…
Is that their hierarchy?
A Japanese blog
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That’s the standard the hypocrite world is making any nation to adopt little by little making it think this is the right thing to do. Then the end of the world will come.
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To begin with Obama is misrepresented in the commercial. A monkey? Get real. He is a politician. Does everyone realize that? A snake, pig or even a little blood-sucking leech would have been far more appropriate. Not a poor little innocent monkey who has never spent a day of his life demagoguing and screwing people.
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Key points missing from the commentary include:
* In Japan, cultural racism is completely acceptable, simply ask any Korean that has lived or currently lives there.
* There was no comparison for the Japanese interviewees or marketing team subjecting equal prejudice directed towards Japanese [ex; Kamikaze Murderers].
* Any Japanese who understands the correlation between Senator Obama and his image being portrayed by a monkey would never admit such. That is just the cultural way of Japan.
* For the past several hundred years, Japan, China, many other countries in Asia, and most of Europe had believed that Blacks or Africans were not quite Human and were merely a half step higher in the Primate evolution above Gorillas and Monkeys.
* The President of eMobile is definitely well educated and fluent in English. Consequently he accepted the interview, understands the response to the commercial and admits to the fault by pulling the advertisement.
What more is expected?
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Because your “Key points” sound much like “a conspiracy theory from Korean ultra-nationalist perspective.
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Ithink the person who reported this is rasist.
E mobile’s competing company Soft Bank is using the dog in their commercial films, therefore E mobile uses the monkey. The dogs and the monkeys are like “Tom and Jerry”.
There are no meaning and metaphor, Japanese don’t seem like monkey is Black or people in Japan.Actually, Japanese seem the monkeys is one of the smatest animal.
I don’t know why they complain about this commercial film from their point of view.
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It’s sad, really, seeing news outlets use sensationalism on something like this just to bolster their ratings. That’s why I’ve stopped watching any sort of news that’s being broadcast here and instead turn to other sources.
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Who invented this “world citizen” propaganda?
It’s funny how a handful of people can influence an entire country.
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Oh, and please, don’t bring Obama himself into this. He probably hasn’t even heard of this ad.
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