Comments

Posts

‘Racist’ Nissan commercial angers Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has threatened a boycott of Nissan after the car company aired the following commercial on Israeli TV:

The new campaign by Renault-Nissan caused an uproar in the Gulf when it showed a group of Saudi oil barons screaming and attacking the Renault-Nissan vehicle.

The Saudis are shown leaving a hotel and encountering the new, fuel-efficient vehicle. One man pounds his fists on the car and is then held back by his companions as he shouts at it, “Hawks should peck at you day and night.”

At the end of the commercial, the voice-over says, “It’s clear the oil companies won’t like you.”

“It’s my opinion that Nissan made a huge error by igniting these [racist] instincts,” official Hani al-Wafa told MBC TV, a Saudi-run station headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “We need to apply punishments… against these things. In order for Nissan to keep its interests in the region, it must apologize.”

Do you think this commercial is racist?

[hat tip to Damien for sending us this story!]

34 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 8, 2008 at 11:17 am

Categories: General Japan Tags: cars, japan, nissan, oil, saudi arabia

David

The Arab oil producing countries should boycott selling any oil to Japan. That would get the point across in a hurry.
http://nonplayercharacter.blogspot.com/ NPC

Stereotyping the typical-enraged oil tycoon? Maybe. But I fail to see anything “racist” pertaining to Saudi’s unless I’m missing something here. I’m open minded so if anyone wants to tell me how it is then please do.

The way I see it, they could do the same with the stereotypical Texas oil tycoon.
ankoku

@David: Yeah. And likely spark a war. I don’t care if Japan is not allowed to have a standing army. If they stopped selling oil to Japan for a COMMERCIAL I don’t think that anybody would stop Japan, and most likely a lot of people would jump on board. Because if they stopped selling oil to a whole COUNTRY because of one COMMERCIAL that made them angry, who knows what other stupid reason they would stop providing oil for?

Either way, that would never happen because they are greed bastards.

For god’s sakes people it is a COMMERCIAL. And maybe it’s only due to the fact that I don’t understand the language, however it doesn’t appear racist to me at all. Anti-big-oil-companies? Yes. Racist? No.

David

It just seems to be go ahead and bite the hand that feeds you because you don’t like the fact that you in fact are being fed at the good graces of your oil baron masters, much as you may not like it thems is da facts.

Time for the PM to do his heavy bowing facade and pretend apologies for offences take, figuratively slap the offending parties, etc. Pretend to be a civilized country. Japan has no choice.

sublight

“Biting the hand that feeds you”? Just who’s doing the buying and who’s doing the selling here?

Japan needs oil, to be sure, but Saudi Arabia needs oil buyers just as much. And there are places close to Japan that produce plenty of oil (Russia and Indonesia, for example) and would be happy to sell if the Saudis decide to have a snit.

CaramelCoconut

Wow…that WAS racist. First of all, he’s pretty much swearing in the video. Second, this is being aired on Israel TV makes it more of a propaganda video than a commercial.
http://www.neilduckett.com Neil Duckett

Nothing racist about it at all.
cliffj

I really think that ‘racist’ is tossed around far too lightly nowadays. This commercial isn’t by definition racist. It is however offensive and insensitive and it really wasn’t very prudent for a multinational corporation like Renault-Nissan to make a commercial like this.

It is absolutely hilarious though.
folosa

The commercial says just as much about Israel which is a racist apartheid state.

ZoneDaiatlas

Arafat, is that you? I thought you were dead…
Joe

I don’t think Israel should exist…but getting off topic

pete

there was a very similar print ad from volvo here in switzerland a few months ago: http://www.persoenlich.com/img/news/content/img254686.jpg
Dr. Pepsi

STEREOTYPING IS NOT ALWAYS RACISM.
Raian

As has been said already, I agree with the fact that this commercial could certainly be offensive to ‘the oil barons’ but I fail to see it as specifically racist.

Granted they probably shouldn’t have had something akin to swearing in the commercial, however how many times have car companies introduced poorly translated model names etc into foreign countries.

This isn’t really so much about the commercial being racist as it is about offense being taken by something that could be funny if it had been presented better and had the other party had a modicum of good humor.
tom

Is this a Jewish stereotopical view to Arab?
Why don’t you blaim on Jew?
Eddie

It IS racist, no doubt about it. Think about where it was aired, who it was marketed to, and then try and tell me it’s not racist.
http://nick.qassia.com/ Nick

Bwahahaha! Funny commercials are the best entertainment (and most effective marketing tool). But why was it in Russian???
http://technotaku.com/ Xacur

What?? What is racist about that?
I think there are people who want to feel offended.
ダビ

Not racist
Troy

There is nothing racist about it at all. It must strike a cord of truth to get em upset in the UAE.
morningstar

This is a over reaction.
Pingback: Haberin Merkezi » Blog Archive » ırkçı nissan reklamı suudi arabistan’ı kızdırdı
Pingback: ırkçı nissan reklamı suudi arabistan’ı kızdırdı — World car insure
Pingback: 0 n 8 = ? » Blog Archive » ırkçı nissan reklamı suudi arabistan’ı kızdırdı
Pingback: 0 n 8 = ? » Blog Archive » Ä±rkÃ§Ä± nissan reklamÄ± suudi arabistan’Ä± kÄ±zdÄ±rdÄ±
Karakus

no it is not racist thing, it’s just a arab intolerant!!!
mixzx

The apocalypse is upon us, brought about by narcisists who demand apologies for silly cartoons and half-witted jokes. Take your pick: Arab, Japanese, American. It doesn’t matter. The catalyst for WW3 will be an off-hand remark from some Hollywood bimbo – a remark found offensive by a monkey sitting on a rock.

The Overthinker

Actually I think the apocaplypse will be brought about by ‘tolerant’ ‘liberals’ who actually give these kooks the time of day and media exposure they so desperately crave.

Karakus

and so I thing it’s successful commercial. and funny.
BDiego

That was such a funny yet tasteless commercial.
keep the ad

why should they remove the ad when it is commonly known and felt that average saudi is racist to all minorities in Saudi
they have enforced fuedal modern day slavery
no labour laws
no justice in traffic violations, all foreigners at fault regardless, women (half of humanity) have no rights
harsh punishment instant prison for minor violations
mistratement and sexual abuse of filipinos and maids
rape is a crime started by women their woerds
they are scum of earth to other muslims
i know personally many indians pakistanis africans philipinos not seen families for 6 years because employer wont let them leave
what kind of horrid arrogant inhuman scum are these
http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

This might not have been prudent, but I can’t see it as racist either. I agree with Cliff and NPC — you could have made the angry man a Texan and it would have gotten the same point across. The problem is that this was aired in Israel — that’ll get backs up for sure.
Karasu-kun

Who the hell cares, honestly. Not everyone in the middle east is an oil tycoon sheik, and that’s what the commercial is making fun of. It doesn’t come off as racist, and if it was a bunch of rootin tootin texans shooting off guns in the air and stomping on their 10-gallon hats, I’d say the same thing. Because guess what, I’m a white guy and I don’t dress like a cowboy nor do I sell oil, so I’m not getting pissed off at a commercial making fun of someone in the energy business. Just sounds like people are overreacting. And propaganda? Hardly. Maybe Israel and Japan are working together to cause a war in the middle east and then they’ll cause natural disasters with the secret weather machine being developed secretly under Tokyo’s labyrinthine subway system run by Benjamin Fulford!
leitmotiv

Its gonna be a damn long time for so-called hydrogen cars, and they will likely fail overall – so you may want to pack a lunch for that.

Wow – jingoism, racism, and ignorance all in a one sentance post. How do you do it?

‘Racist’ Nissan commercial angers Saudi Arabia

Recent Comments

Further Reading

Japanese Documentary About Sea Shepherd’s Protest Activities in Taiji (English Subtitles)

Babies Born on March 11th Receive Special Present

Washington Times Freelancer Slams Former Employer, Fails to Ethically Disclose Relationship?

Christopher Johnson Attempts to Silence Criticism of His “Gaijin Gulag” Article (Legal Threats!!!)

Tabloid Reports About Yu Darvish’s Love Life: Kirara Asuka & Miho Koga?

Does K-Pop Group KARA Have Ties to North Korea?

Tokyo Gate Bridge

Sara Errani Admits She Avoided Tennis Tournament in Tokyo: Feared Radiation

Chinese Workers Who Survived March 11th Tsunami Return to Tohoku

Why’s Zippei So Quiet? TV Dog Had Vocal Cords Removed

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Japan Blogs

Korea Blogs

Linkroll

Other Asia Blogs