So there's this new (I think) commercial on for Starbucks Frappuccino-in-a-bottle. I've only seen it once (it's also noted here, here, and here), but as far as I can reconstruct it, it goes like this:
There's a shot of an Asian guy reading, possibly in an office break room. He's wearing something like '50s nerd glasses, but they're really retro-nerd glasses, so the effect is, I presume, ironic. For a moment I'm having that odd exhiliration angry asian man reported on a few weeks ago: the possibility of seeing an Asian on television in a totally normal role.
A blonde woman (also wearing glasses) enters the room and opens a large refrigerator, inside which is a Starbucks Frappuccino. As she reaches for it the refrigerator door blocks the face of the Asian guy. When she closes the door, Frappuccino in hand, the Asian guy has changed into a white guy: apparently it's crooner Michael Buble, but wearing the Asian guy's nerd glasses.
He takes off the glasses and proceeds to follow the woman around the office serenading and flirting with her as her coworkers move obliviously about.
So. Drink a Frappuccino; jump-start your day; turn your dorky Asian officemate into a sexy white man.
I noticed that commercial too, and found the disapperance of the Asian co-worker a bit sinister in its blatant erasure. But, I suppose most commercials are sinister when it comes to race.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see what the Starbucks frappuccino does to the (invisible) Latino janitorial crew just behind one of the cubicle partitions.
the issue is that not many recognize Michael Buble as someone famous so instead read the ad as her fantasizing about an ethnically homogenized world.
ReplyDeletei have a problem with any ad changing anyone's ethnicity no matter what the circumstances of the change might be. that's just wrong.
Although I like the "Come fly With Me" sonmg int his comemrcial, I think the "nerdy" asian guy is WAY hotter than the singer who replaces him. He's cute and he has great hair. The singer has a nice voice but doesn't make we want to fly away...excapt back to work where the sexy asin guy is drinking his coffee in the brak room.
ReplyDeleteasian guys: hot doesn't matter if chinese, japanese, korean, vietmanese, ect. white female here saying asian guys are a turn on. they come with a built in tan, they got that cool eye thing, nice proportioned face, and don't all chics like guys with accents?
ReplyDeletehahahahahha oh my goodness. Dear Lord. I am seriously cracking up. When I watched this commercial I thought that it was adorable and I loved Buble's voice and i thought that he was sexy and hott. A moment did not pass by when i was like " OH MY GOD ASIAN MAN TURNS INTO BUBLE IM GOING TO GO AND ATTRACT ATTENTION TO MYSELF BY POSTING EVERYWHERE THAT STARBUCKS IS BEING RACIST" You guys are being COMPLETLY rediculous. Grow up. Please. It's just a commercial to advertise buble and guess what...it worked. so just please calm down. This kind of argument is something that little girls and boy would start........ except they probably have more sense then you to agrue about something rediculous like this.
ReplyDeleteOh and by the way...... I'm asian. And I'm not offended at all.