Salesgenie CEO Scraps Panda Commercial

After the blogosphere questioned Salesgenie's offensive "Asian" panda Super Bowl commercial (as seen at right), Vinod Gupta has taken it off the air. In an interview with the New York Times, Gupta said, "We never thought anyone would be offended...The pandas are Chinese. They don’t speak German." I'm pretty sure pandas don't speak Chinese either, but if Pandas are Chinese are bison American? Should the buffalo be allowed roam and vote? They'd so vote for vegan Dennis Kucinich.

Since people don't seem as offended with Gupta's other commercial, featuring an Indian salesman with seven children, said ad will continue to air. Are they not as offended since Gupta is Indian and there's an unspoken rule that you can make fun of your own culture, just not others?

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans has finally responded to the ads themselves with this memo:

We've heard a number of inquiries and concerns about the Salesgenie ads from the Superbowl with the pandas and with the Indian American salesman.
People are sitting there watching the game and the commercials, and suddenly get these stereotype Asian accents thrown at them for a cheap laugh. Vin Gupta, the apparent writer of these ads, indicated in an article before the game that what matters is getting people to go to the Salesgenie website. Many people were offended by the ads, understandably. For one thing, the ads probably bring up for people the experiences they've had with being mocked for speaking with an accent or just for being Asian (by the way, that applies to the
Budweiser/Mencia commercial too, though we haven't heard as much about that one). We should ask ourselves why Asian characters almost automatically have to speak with accents, when of course in reality many do not. However, MANAA is stopping short of denouncing the ads as racist. Panda bears and a salesperson speaking in foreign accents to get a laugh may be examples of uninspired writing, but there's nothing inherently racist about using accents. As an organization, we are more unimpressed than offended. We don't want to reward the company with more coverage than it's already received.

See also:

• Offensive Super Bowl Ads Written by Major Clinton Donor
• Were Sales Genie's Super Bowl Ads Offensive?