A friend of mine asked in a comment a while back what I think of the whole Mr. James thing. While I'm not so completely turned off that I'm going to boycott McDonalds, I think it was a stupid and insensitive move on their part, and an unwise marketing decision. Perhaps some Japanese find it funny, but I think the more publicity this campaign receives, the more negatively it will reflect on McDonalds. A large, multinational corporation such as McDonalds with such extensive experience should know better than to run a campaign based on a stereotype (especially a negative one).
The Daily Yo-ji just released a spoof of Mr. James promoting Mos Burger, one of Japan's leading burger chains. They also sent a letter with their proposal to Mos Burger. Pretty funny. I really hope someone from Mos decides to pick up this counter-marketing plan and run with it.
H/t to Japan Probe. Here's the link for the video, if you can't view it embedded.
I love how the actors, both in the original and in this parody, have to try so hard to speak Japanese poorly, but they clearly speak better than they are putting on. You can always tell by their pronunciation that they're trying hard to fake bad Japanese. I also LOL'ed at the fact that he's supposedly reading his phrases out of a Basic Kanji book (a book I recognize well) and the bowing.
ReplyDeleteHeh, yeah. Once you learn to pronounce Japanese properly, it's hard to go back. =)
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