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Hi
Given the recent interesting debates on the use and sensitivity of the swastika or even eagles I wondered what RAT's German readers would think of an advert currently running on British Television?
It is by Citroen which depicts a new car regarded as 'typically German' although it is made in France. What follows is what some Ad person either from France or Britain has regarded as typically 'German'.
A tall thin, slightly sinister, blond haired gentleman, dressed in black complete with dueling scar has a sword fight with a Bavarian and slices the feather off his hat with his sword. He then gets into the car driving past a building with a large stone eagle, wings only slightly outstretched. He stops at a guest house were he is served sausage by a typical buxom blond waitress dressed in traditional Bavarian style. After eating he gets back into his car and drives to Berlin signposted in Gothic lettering. He drives past the Brandenburg Gate and stops at the Berlin Olympic stadium. All to the soundtrack of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in the background and a voice over from the German actor Wolf Kahler, familiar to British viewers for appearing as 'The ambassador' in a long running chocolate commercial but most often as any number of German officers in WW2 movies!
Do RAT 's German readers find this amusing or even offensive? Well someone must have found something they disliked because the Advert now appears in an edited version. Any guesses as to what has been cut out from the above?
Graham
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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I think this is the ad you mean.
I can not answer your question whether this is felt to be offensive by our German friends, but here is another commercial, from MTV, broadcasted during the European Football Championships. I have not counted all stereotypes in the second half of this advert. As far as I know, no one has complained about it - and personally, I think it's outrageously funny.
Jona Lendering
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Hi,
we had in Germany an advert of Citroen, that dealt with national clichés as well ('twas about regional food in a crash-test). I think the Ad in question is quite funny, a little out-dated may be. (... nonetheless I'd really like to know this waitress  ) ... anyway, I like even movies/series, like Top Secret / Hogans Heros that go way farther in displaying stereotyped Germans and I dont feel offended.
Quote:Well someone must have found something they disliked because the Advert now appears in an edited version.
may be, but I'd sooner think, that it was cancelled out of fear it could be embarrassing.
just found this, IIRC it was designed to be part of an official EU campaign
http://www.erothitan.com/press_info/200 ... an_de.html
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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That is the one Jona.
I did not realise it was so well known! Unmistakably German not Typically.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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My first thought when I actually heard the punchline on that first advert was relief that it didn't end with 'Vorsprung Durch Technik'!
I'm not as politically correct with regard to broadcast media as I am with regard to with personal comments (as I disapprove of the act of offending someone, rather than of crossing the shifting borders of current good taste), but I do tend to class ads and comedy relying on retro stereotypes as lazy writing: it's easier to provoke than impress (hardly 'Hand built by Robots' was it?) and safer to hide behind a deniable post-modern Punch & Judy than be honest (I think Billy Connolly manages to build whole acts around caricaturing the foibles of the nation he's visiting whilst conveying affection for them).
My next thought was that if they had a point e.g. about the reputation of the two different places of manufacture, it was lost on me.
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:?
I think there are other things more worthy of our outrage than these two commercials.
They are fairly amusing but no one near the edge like almost any Monty Python bit or even some of the earlier seasons of Saturday Night Live.
Of course our German members may feel differently.
:?
Narukami
David Reinke
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Quote:....ads and comedy relying on retro stereotypes as lazy writing: it's easier to provoke than impress (hardly 'Hand built by Robots' was it?) and safer to hide behind a deniable post-modern Punch & Judy than be honest ....
How true...
We live in the 21st century.
Its time we stop dragging the 20th with us all the time 8) 8) 8) 8)
Kind regards
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Quote:Its time we stop dragging the 20th with us all the time
Yes, yes, yes.
Jona Lendering
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I would imagine it has been edited simply to cram more commercials into the 5min commercial break, likr they do with most commercials.
They start with a full length version, then chop it down once the full message is across!
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
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:lol:
i like it. as I don't feel as a german (more like a weltenbürger with bavarian background) I have no problems with jokes about germans...I mean, they're a perfect target :wink:
MARCVS DECIVS / Matthias Wagner
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I frequent another forum where this was discussed with the resident Germans. It was all taken as good fun, and everyone laughed at it.
However, I must say with all respect to RAT members that the members of the other forum seem to have thicker skins than many here at RAT.
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Well History and politics aside it is the waitress who is edited out when the advert now appears! Perhaps it was the sausages!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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I think it's jolly healthy when one can laugh at oneself what!what!what! :wink:
Memmia AKA Joanne Wenlock.
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Unfortunately, these links are censored by the fun police here at work.....
home Friday........and yes I would agree there are certain persons who are a bit touchy about certain topics.
I'll keep mine secret thanks..... :lol:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
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Quote::lol:
i like it. as I don't feel as a german (more like a weltenbürger with bavarian background) I have no problems with jokes about germans...I mean, they're a perfect target :wink:
the funny thing about is that almost invariably in the world rural Bavarian-style clothing/dialect is understood or at least often portrayed as typically German in general.
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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