Racist Commercials

I don't understand how anyone - ANYONE - could have thought these commercials were a good idea (with the possible exception of the Comedy Channel who later used them for fodder). In the Gary's Mattress commercial at top, he manages to make racist statements against not one, not two - but FOUR different American ethnic groups. Wow! I'm impressed that this is even possible in a 53 second sound bite.

He starts by stereotyping Japanese and Chinese by saying "We are karate-chopping prices just for you" while wearing an funny hat. Then he plays on a Jewish stereotype and says, "Even we would buy it." For the Arabic community he puts on a long mustache and says "At Gary's Mattress, we're blowing up prices." Finally he dresses up as an American Indian, with a tomahawk and says "We're scalping prices." Like I said, I don't even understand how anyone could consider this a good commercial. He's essentially insulting a good portion of his potential clientele - unless he's hoping the commercial will draw in whites, or other groups he doesn't stereotype. This commercial is just a train wreck on so many levels.

The commercial for a Dodge dealer, pins the evil import man (Chinese or Japanese?) against the American superhero who is fighting for domestic products. While I have no problem with buying American, I do have a problem when people make a blanket statement about imports being "evil." First of all, our economy could no longer survive without imports - as much as some people might hate to accept this, it's true. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with supporting the economy in China or Japan or anywhere else - we do it inadvertently whether we want to or not. The only exception I can think of are the Amish who don't use cars, make their clothes, grow most of their food, and buy the rest from local grocers. But even most Amish probably have purchased an imported product at some time or other.

My point is that we should want to support the global economy and strive to work on building symbiotic relationships with other countries - not taking a negative view of them or making THEM out to be the parasites. Right now, with our present economy in a downward tailspin, most Chinese probably see US as the evil importers who are hurting THEIR economy!