Six Flags' TV ads get thumbs down from some Asian Americans

[29yrswithaGApass]

Source: am New York

 

'Six Flags' TV ads get thumbs down from some Asian Americans

By Megan Stride | Special to amNewYork

August 5, 2008

 

"More Flags, More Fun" may mean "More Outrage" for Six Flags over the amusement park chain's summer ad campaign featuring a screaming, thickly-accented young Asian man.

 

The commercials, which have been airing nationally for months, are being called offensive, or worse, racist.

 

"It's a pretty offensive ad, not only because of the thick accent, but also because someone is screaming at you," said Margaret Fung, executive director of New York's Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

 

"I can't believe that the company thinks this is effective."

 

The organization will be contacting other activist groups as it considers taking action against Six Flags, Fung said. The organization has received several e-mail complaints about the ads, she added.

 

"There are groups in the past who have joined together in coalitions," Fung said. "We need to speak to our other groups in the Asian American communities to see if there's an interest in starting a campaign against it."

 

Six Flags did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The campaign seems to be a riff on Japanese game shows or commercials featuring pop-up, hyper salesmen.

 

"How often have we seen this type of satire? LOTS. Now Six Flags is taking this ignorance nationwide," writes blogger Angry Chinese Guy.

 

The commercials are certainly obnoxious, but not racist, said Democratic City Councilman John Liu, who represents Flushing, a neighborhood with a large Asian population.

 

"I'm frankly annoyed by it," Liu said. "It's more than a bit annoying. But I'm not sure if I see a racist component in it. I haven't received any complaints about it."

 

But Aimee Baldillo, the director of programs at the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, D.C., said that the thick accent makes the caricature unmistakable.

 

"It's always that fallback of the stereotype of the perpetual foreigner," Baldillo said. "There's still very much that image of them [Asian Americans] as foreign and still not belonging to this country."

 

The center often deals with poor media portrayals of Asian Americans by sitting down with producers to explain what's offensive and how to be more sensitive.

 

"This is a highlight of why it's important to have diverse people in decision-making in companies and advertising," Baldillo said. "I think it speaks to the need for diversity in advertising and for some sort of interest in cultural sensitivity."

 

Both Baldillo and Fung said that while portrayals of Asian Americans such as this are unacceptable, they are certainly not uncommon.

 

"Unfortunately, there are very many examples of these kinds of racist portrayals," Fung said.

 

Bob Garfield, ad critic for Advertising Age and co-host of NPR's "On the Media," said that while the ads carried no blatant racism, they lack sensitivity.

 

"I don't see this as stereotyping because it really doesn't conform to common stereotypes of Asians. A common stereotype would be 'inscrutable' or 'good in math,'" Garfield said.

 

"That said, nobody wants to see his racial or ethnic characteristics turned into a cartoon. Nobody wants to be Amos 'n' Andy."

 

 

[RobertDavid]

This is unfortunate. I do believe they made a bad choice with this ad campaign. I don't believe it conveys the image they are going for with the parks. Ethnic issues aside, it's just obnoxious.

[GAcoaster]

I found it a strange choice after the Snyder and Shapiro badmouthed the Mr. Six campaign, which was pretty much the same thing.

 

As for the man's thick accent, I read somewhere he really is Japanese, and that's just the way he speaks. It's much ado about nothing...

 

They should have done a campaign like Cedar Fair's "Come Away With Me"...it really says family.

 

 

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

Perhaps nobody should be allowed to advertise anything anymore. Lets be honest if you have a woman selling clothes, make-up, or anything else she is being degraded and is nothing but eye candy, if someone from a foreign country is used in advertising, they are being stereotyped or the company is racist, no matter what you do, there is always someone who finds something wrong with what you are doing. Heck Hary Potter has been protested because of promoting wizardry, I'm shocked there hasn't been a huge campaign to stop construction on the wizarding world park. I am just tired of seeing everything as being racist, stereotypical, or anything else. Nothing can be taken as a joke anymore, and in all honesty that is just as big a problem with this country as anything else.

[Daved Thomson]

Perhaps nobody should be allowed to advertise anything anymore. Lets be honest if you have a woman selling clothes, make-up, or anything else she is being degraded and is nothing but eye candy, if someone from a foreign country is used in advertising, they are being stereotyped or the company is racist, no matter what you do, there is always someone who finds something wrong with what you are doing. Heck Hary Potter has been protested because of promoting wizardry, I'm shocked there hasn't been a huge campaign to stop construction on the wizarding world park. I am just tired of seeing everything as being racist, stereotypical, or anything else. Nothing can be taken as a joke anymore, and in all honesty that is just as big a problem with this country as anything else.

I have to agree with you 100%... It seems nobody is capable of laughing at themselves anymore. Every group on this earth has some stereotype associated with them and, like it or not, while most people will not acknowledge the existence of such things in an effort to be "politically correct," they do exist.

 

That being said, however, I personally find the Six Flags ads annoying and completely off target if they are really marketing themselves to families. A simple and very often used advertising copy test among their target would have guaranteed that these ads would not have made it on the air because respondents would have found them annoying, unlikeable, and off-target. I'd be willing to bet, however, that they would have scored high in terms of unaided and aided brand recall.

[29yrswithaGApass]

I find the current ad campaign somewhat annoying. I know the first half of the commercials (sock puppets, cats with laser pointers, etc.) are meant to seem boring and stupid, but that mindset just continues for me for the second half. I think it's because we spent so much time going through and finding all those old GA commercials in the galleries that the ones today just pale in comparison.

 

 

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

^ You know I do think that you have a point there especially on this website where we can see examples of the old school advertising that worked. See you guys spoil us with all the good memories in those ads, most of which I'm sure the majority of the park's target audience do not even remember.

[Thunderbolt]

I have to agree with you 100%... It seems nobody is capable of laughing at themselves anymore. Every group on this earth has some stereotype associated with them and, like it or not, while most people will not acknowledge the existence of such things in an effort to be "politically correct," they do exist.

 

That being said, however, I personally find the Six Flags ads annoying and completely off target if they are really marketing themselves to families. A simple and very often used advertising copy test among their target would have guaranteed that these ads would not have made it on the air because respondents would have found them annoying, unlikeable, and off-target. I'd be willing to bet, however, that they would have scored high in terms of unaided and aided brand recall.

 

Stereotypes are ok until they target a group or issue you're sensitive towards. Everything in paragraph 2 is spot on.

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

Stereotypes are ok until they target a group or issue you're sensitive towards. Everything in paragraph 2 is spot on.

 

That is exactly my point though. People don't make a big deal about stereotypes until they are a part of one. Then suddenly it becomes a big deal not because stereotyping overall is wrong, but because one about them is hurtful. If we are going to get rid of problems like this all stereotypes need to be dealt with, not on an individual basis like here, but as a whole. When one group decides something is wrong for them, but says nothing about other stereotypes about other people it begins to be seen as a more of what are they crying about now instance instead of you know they have a good point. It's unfortunate and I don't think any sort of stereotyping is good by any means, but at the same time I feel like selective dissapproval amkes matters worse sometimes.

[RobertDavid]

That is exactly my point though. People don't make a big deal about stereotypes until they are a part of one. Then suddenly it becomes a big deal not because stereotyping overall is wrong, but because one about them is hurtful. If we are going to get rid of problems like this all stereotypes need to be dealt with, not on an individual basis like here, but as a whole. When one group decides something is wrong for them, but says nothing about other stereotypes about other people it begins to be seen as a more of what are they crying about now instance instead of you know they have a good point. It's unfortunate and I don't think any sort of stereotyping is good by any means, but at the same time I feel like selective dissapproval amkes matters worse sometimes.

 

 

I think it's a little unfair to get mad at these people for not taking on every instance of stereotyping in the world. They saw an ad that offended them personally and responded to it. It is their right to do so. Of course people are going to get involved when they are personally affected. There are millions of worthy causes in this world, every person does not get involved in every cause. People tend to get involved in causes that somehow affect them personally, and there's nothing wrong with that, as long as they get involved in something.

 

I do not believe this ad is worth getting too upset about, but I do believe it was a bad decision and again is a step backward for the company instead of forward in working to improve their image. And by the way, this stereotype does not involve me at all personally, but I still believe it is wrong. Most of all, however, I just believe it was wrong for the company and it's image.

[JetsDevs4Lyf]

I dunno I'm just gonna stop with this topic because I am sure no matter what I say it's going to be looked upon as wrong somehow.

[Railer]

People get all bent over anything nowadays. The fact of the matter is I'd say about 80% of the Asian population around where I work (Camden and Burlington County) do talk that way, so what's the big deal. If Six Flags was an Asian company, do you think anyone would care then? How about this, I am your a-typical white boy, i'm going to start getting pissed when I hear people talking like me. I will feel like I am being stereotyped and complain to anyone who will listen. People need to toughen up nowaday's. That's all I'm going to say about this and I don't really care if anyone doesen't like it.

[Daved Thomson]

People get all bent over anything nowadays. The fact of the matter is I'd say about 80% of the Asian population around where I work (Camden and Burlington County) do talk that way, so what's the big deal. If Six Flags was an Asian company, do you think anyone would care then? How about this, I am your a-typical white boy, i'm going to start getting pissed when I hear people talking like me. I will feel like I am being stereotyped and complain to anyone who will listen. People need to toughen up nowaday's. That's all I'm going to say about this and I don't really care if anyone doesen't like it.

 

I love it and I think you got it right on the money! You said exactly what I tried to say when I wrote that people today do not seem to be able to laugh at themselves. That's exactly it... I DO NOT LIKE the Six Flags ads at all (as I have previously indicated), but people really do need to learn how to laugh at themselves because everyone on this earth will have plenty of times in their lives when they will laugh about others that are (in fact) different from them. We cannot be ethnically/sexually/racially, etc. diverse AND expect others to see us as no different. People are different, stereotypes exist, and every one of us fits a stereotype that others perceive as relevant and indicative of our differences. Some are real differences while others are perceived differences. Moreover, like it or not, perception is reality. You couldn't have said it better... People need to toughen up and get a little bit thicker skin! Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never her you.

[Guest warnerleroy]

I guess they suceeded, I haven't seen them in a while.