My one question is whether or not authentic cultural garb was procured for these taste-testers. I hate to burst your bubble but Bucharest, Romania, is a proper city with a major university. I have a friend who has her Masters in genetics and her Ph.D. in immunology. She almost never dresses in these Romanian costumes. Wait, actual never. Not only that but this McDocumentary (sorry McDonalds) should have been edited because the open and honest interviews with the ugly Americans is appallingly insensitive and disgusting.
This documentary reveals as much about the provincialism of Americans as it does possibly about the “primatives” they’re documenting. Besides, the American obsession with the Noble Savage is so eighteenth-century. And this sort of untoward behavior is the furthest thing from Noblesse Oblige. They are neither being noble nor are they honoring any sort of moral obligation.
So, tell me, are those traditional cultural costumes authentic or monkey suits? Was this the decision of the bonehead producer, the director, or did this crisp, minty fresh garb just happen to be what these folks were wearing? Were they just aching to be used there in the back of everyones’ closet? Or, was this the regalia these test subject were wearing when and where they were discovered? I really want to know!
The most deplorable part of this documentary is the critique and un-self-aware commentary of the way these test subjects took to the burger, along the lines of, “these people are so authentic because they don’t even know how to eat a burger to say nothing of a sandwich.”
I am actually deeply appalled and embarrassed to be an American at just about now.
Egad!
(via “Chris Abraham)
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I think the folks in the beta-test studio were wearing costumes. Look carefully–not a spot on them, and they looked freshly pressed. Maybe one person would walk in wearing new clothes, but every one of them…?
What’s the point of this video? Propagating fast food hamburgers around the world doesn’t seem like anything worth being proud of. *Shudder*
How offensive, to dress up “villagers” as if it were photo day at school and you were their parents, if that is the case.
*Shudder* auch.
Calling it a ‘documentary’ is being pretty generous. I think ‘mockumentary’ is the genre they had in their sights. They were being intentionally and self-consciously absurd. The entire tone is ‘tongue-firmly-in-cheek.’ Sheesh; lighten up, people.
Well, then — if it was actually tongue-in-cheek then all of the crew should have been wearing cowboy costumes and big hats. Or, maybe they should have been funny or at least ironic. Their “mockumentary” should maybe have spent more time in self-mock mode and less time mocking the local “villagers.” Actually, the broke the most important cardinal rule:
It wasn’t funny.
I completely agree with this post. These commercials are not only offensive to me as a Romanian but also as a person with a brain. I saw one yesterday that ended with a guy choosing a fish over a whopper and the commentary saying “oh well, you can’t win them all”. Like basically saying, who cares if this dumb foreign clod doesn’t like our whopper? It’s that kind of attitude that keeps getting us deeper and deeper in trouble on a global scale.
There’s a funny blog on freedomhaters.org on the Whopper Virgins commercial.
It ties it into Noam Chomsky and how the indigenous people on the commercials will most likely be forced to move to big cities when the fast food chains move in, and have to work for Burger King for a tenth of what American’s make.
Check it out here:
http://freedomhaters.org/content/what-would-noam-chomsky-say-about-burger-kings-whopper-virgin-ad-campaign
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