Commercial Portraying Obama as a Monkey No Longer Airing in Japan
EMOBILE, a Japanese cell phone company, created a parody of the Barack Obama series of “change” speeches as part of their summer sales campaign where Obama is portrayed as a monkey. Due to consumer complaints of racism they have been forced to pull the commercial. Here it is:
Check out this video of what the EMOBILE representative had to say. What do you think?
Tags: Barack Obama, Change, Commercial, Emobile, Japan, Obama, The Tokyo Traveler, Tokyo, Tokyo Travel Guide, Tokyo Travel Tips, Tokyo Visitors Guide, TravelRelated Stories
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3 opinions for Commercial Portraying Obama as a Monkey No Longer Airing in Japan
J-Michael
Jul 9, 2008 at 7:48 am
Doesn’t surprise me, as much as I love Japan, it’s not the most diverse of countries. Thanks for the info, I’ll post the video on Starked and I’d LOVE to link back to you. THANKS!
Obama Monkey Ad Pulled
Jul 9, 2008 at 7:54 am
[…] ad is below. Do read the original article here at the The Tokyo Traveler. And if you ever want to read up on all that is Japanese, feel free […]
Deas
Jul 9, 2008 at 9:18 am
As much as I know there is real racism in Japan…I honestly don’t think this is it. I think it was just a poorly thought out ad campaign. Japan’s got loads of problems with content produced for the domestic market getting out to the international market. They certainly don’t always deal well with these things. But I do believe that this monkey is just a monkey. It has a history of copying other people in its commercials - not just Obama. I dunno. I just think that this target is too soft and am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I’m way more offended by the racial caricatures on the (厳しい)回転SUSHI segments from はねるのトビラ. Know what I mean?
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