09.12.09
Chinese stereotypes… yay.
I gotta say, I’m a little offended at the new Nissin Chow Mein tv ads with the Chinese tiny old man cartoon. He spouts some vaguely Confucian-sounding crap in a thick accent and looks straight out of, I don’t know, 60 years ago. Long wispy beard, bushy eyebrows, a robe (what is he, Chinese Hef?) and something that could be a scroll or a lame samurai sword strapped to his back. Plus, he turns out to be “Eddie from Accounting” at the end of the ad. If they just went with the retro silliness it might have been funny, but it ends up weird and nonsensical.
Do they actually think this will get people to buy their noodles? If a real Chinese person said they were good that’d make the same point except a hundred times better. This little drawing telling a white girl that she has “followed the path to noodle enlightenment” is just dumb. I hope he’s not what the execs imagine when they think of Chinese people.
