Uncle Dan’s Blog: Some People Just Crack Me Up
Who gets CNN International? Anyone who does is probably intimately familiar with the advertising about tourism to whatever country, because its tourism board is shoveling money into it. Sometimes it’s really nice. Sometimes it’s really corny.
I have a few Malaysian friends here. In good fun, we occasionally call them “Malaysia Truly Asia!” which makes no sense really, but is just fun. They hate it.
I’ve an Egyptian friend here. A Canadian friend who gets affectionate when drunk, came up to him one night after having not seen him for some time and said “Aziz! I love that you’re from Egypt! … The Sun, man!” After joking around some time about this, Aziz said “Yeah, that’s all they talk about. It’s all we have! Sun!”
A Thai/Aussie TCK friend then said “You know how every ad for a hot weather country has a hot girl in a swimsuit jumping into a pool or something? Thailand has an old guy walking with a young boy along a beach. It sells, man! Niche marketing!”
And that’s just within a few days here. This is why I love it. Anyone else had something similar?
Edit:
Figured I should edit this for people who don’t get CNN.
Malaysia’s slogan for years was “Malaysia Truly Asia.”
Ads for Egypt invite people to come to the country where they “offer their greatest treasure: The Sun.”
Daniel Nguyen-Phuoc
Vietnamese in ethnicity, born in Houston, Texas. Lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for 14 years while going to a British International School to finish with the International Baccalaureate. Survived only two years in the University of Michigan before ending up in Switzerland. Graduated from an international (and that's meant in every word) hospitality college. Interesting life, to be sure. But not the only one.Related Posts
7 Comments to “Uncle Dan’s Blog: Some People Just Crack Me Up”
July 13th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
lol…
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
This bit about the Thai/Aussie TCK made me laugh.
I gotta agree with the Malaysia Truly Asia bit though. There’s still a lot more to be done before we can even think about calling ourselves ‘Truly Asia’.
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July 13th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
My Malaysian friend actually likes the motto “Malaysia Truly Asia”.
And I don’t watch CNN.
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July 14th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Here’s the video for those of you who haven’t seen it.
To me it’s a well-made advert that works, but I believe it may not be to the liking of some Malaysians and some other Asians, because there’s a colonial mentality embedded in it.
The advert pretty much sends the message of: Our beautiful tropical island with lush green forests surrounded by white sand beaches and an aquamarine ocean with diverse cultures on it is there to serve you and your every need.
“Everything I’ve wanted. All that I’ve asked of you. Everything I’ve dreamed of…it’s all coming true…” is all there for you.
The very idea that there’s a tropical island out there where all your dreams will come true is colonialist.
So some will like it and some won’t like it.
(Not everyone will notice that there’s a colonial mentality in there because in a way it’s just cliche advertising for tropical tourist resorts which all have this ‘colonial’ perspective imbedded in them.)
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July 14th, 2008 at 3:47 am
If it’s hard to imagine there’s something strange about the way women appear in this video try to imagine a video of Sweden for example.
Imagine in your mind a version of this that’s adapted to a Swedish environment where you see svelte blond blue eyed women with amazing tans strategically placed for beauty and sexuality…
Insert dancing and singing from Midsummer’s Eve and some dance from the Laplanders.
Can we have a scene inside a ‘Sauna’ where a bunch of beautiful nordic men and women are all having a good time?
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July 14th, 2008 at 6:33 am
i think malaysia truly asia is a pretty awesome slogan! lol
blah those jokes don’t really happen here because we don’t get CNN
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July 14th, 2008 at 6:49 am
That’s false advertising.
I’ve never seen the streets of Malaysia in the city so uncluttered and free.
O.o
And I notice there’s a lot of white people in the advert, with some Malays and Indians, but no Chinese whatsoever.
Sorry, this is literally an ongoing civil war in my head…
But maybe CNN should actually ask where the Chinese have gone to, cuz I know I don’t see them, and the Chinese are a part of Malaysia just as much as the Malays and Indians are…
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