Saturday, April 05, 2008

Dubbed Commercials

During my most recent trip to Europe (specifically England) while watching TV I saw a few different american commercials (known there as adverts) dubbed. Now these commercials weren't dubbed into another language to accommodate any number of immigrant groups that are residents of the great city of London. Rather these commercials were dubbed over with an english accent to mask the harsh sounds of the American accent the commercial originally had.

This was strange and possibly even more strange to me since I've been back state side. While watching commercials here I notice a lot more that there are many commercials using a main character/voice with a british accent.

There are marketing implications even in something as simple as an accent. People often associate different characteristics with different accents (whether right or wrong) and companies try to use this to their advantage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you see those SalesGenie commercials that ran during this year's SUper Bowl? The one featuring a very Punjabi sounding man (with a large family) and the Pandas who sell bamboo furniture?

The accents were crazy...

Luke said...

Yeah, and if I recall correctly there were people quite offended with those commercials. And I'm not sure its always the group being "represented" that complains, but rather people who think its offensive to other people.

But from a marketing perspective I guess you have to look at what effect the accents have, and whether it is a desired effect. For example, are you trying to attract people with those accents?