Liftingfaces

Obama as Japanese Monkey?

Written by

Ryan Dunn

in

I returned from week up in the Northwoods of Ontario, Canada, amidst a cage match between the two US presidential candidates, only to have a buddy of mine from Japan send me a link which is, well, astonishing to say the least.

eMobile, a Japanese mobile phone company, is running a campaign, with a monkey, playing the part of . . . . . Barack Obama. They even lifted his campaign slogan, declaring “Yes, We Change!”

Do the Japanese creatives even KNOW how racist this is? I can’t wait for CNN and MSNBC and FOXNEWS of America to get a hold of this one.

Check it out now, and judge for yourself.

Comments

13 responses to “Obama as Japanese Monkey?”

  1. Logan Avatar
    Logan

    This ad is offensive, but I am so glad to see what the world thinks about African-Americans. Keep doing what you do so that African Americans become aware of your thoughts

  2. Negla3 Avatar
    Negla3

    This is horrible…and America wonders why we’re so anxious to have an open discussion on race…

  3. Osaru Avatar
    Osaru

    Please don’t mistake about it…
    This CM is just a parody of Japanese TV drama.. “Change”
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ARkSXvtFvls
    One of popular Japanese actors, Takuya Kimura(Kimutaku) is playing a role of Japanese Prime minister to be.
    We often use the image of monkey acting like a human as a symbol of evolution.
    This CM was also popular in Japan.
    http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=ijoS1zj309M
    These monkeys are Japanese monkeys with pinkish face, not at all black..
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Macaque
    We Japanese love these monkeys!!

  4. invertebrae Avatar
    invertebrae

    osaru,

    if that is true, then japan needs to be up on its world politics and understand that obama is our first african american presidential elect, and his slogan is “yes, we can change”. the marketing team should know better, just my opinion.

    …ryan

  5. Osaru Avatar
    Osaru

    Hi Ryan,

    >the marketing team should know better

    I agree with you…
    They might not consider how the CM will be looked by the people in other countries when they made it..

    The TV drama “Change” seems to be a really nice drama.
    http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/change/
    In this drama, an average elementary school teacher had changed and pursued to be a politician when his great politician father died. He eventually became the Prime Minister and he is trying hard to change the politics and Japan.

    Many preferable comments were posted on the bulletin board on its site saying they wish to have a Prime Minister like him.

    I don’t know why they named this TV drama “Change” but I think it’s a good title because the theme of the drama is “change” and we Japanese prefer to use English for titles of movies, TV dramas, products, etc.
    They might think it’s also good to use the word “Change” because it’s included in Obama’s slogan. (I really don’t know about it, though)

    So the TV drama is OK but the CM of Emobile does have a problem…

    Well, we don’t have that much racial or religious issues in Japan…
    I.e, we tend to be careless about those issues…
    Emobile might be too careless about international issues…
    Any video can be posted on Youtube and watched by the people all over the world now.. They should know better..

    But I guess they decided to use human-like monkey first to let consumer know they were going to release some epoch-making products or services. Then they wondered what kind of role to be played by the monkey… They might want to make consumers stick in their mind about the great change in their service… So their keyword might be also “change”… They might be better to ask Takuya Kimura to appear in their CM but as he is a famous actor, his endorsement might be very expensive…(I even don’t know if they asked him about it, though…)

    The monkey’s name is “Riku.” He is so cool and loved by Japanese people…
    http://emobile.jp/movie/2008/EMCM2008-5making.html

    This CM itself is not bad but they should have not released it while the election of American President is ongoing..

    I really hope American people don’t mistake about this CM and hold bad impression on Japan…

    I asked my friend to make Emobile realize this dispute. They should offer clarification and apology.
    I don’t know how it works, though… Let’s see.

  6. endekks Avatar
    endekks

    I also live in Japan – and was the one who pointed out the ad to Ryan – and have to say that the slogan is not just “CHANGE”. The campaign uses “Yes We Change” which is much closer to the the Obama slogan, “Yes We Can Change”. I know about the TV show, and the monkey (though I thought it was Taro), but given the global situation right now, this sort of thing should have been considered when the promotion started running.

    In addition, if the CM was a parody of the character from the TV show, then why use an imitation of Obama’s voice – and not the character from the show?

  7. ST Avatar
    ST

    I have sent a complaint to Emobile as a customer (actually I’m using Emobile’s com card for my laptop pc). I agree with osaru that it wasn’t based on racism, but, they should have been more thoughtful — people in multiple cultures can watch the ad once it was put on the internet, even if it was only for the national market.

  8. Sato Avatar
    Sato

    comme on people we live in Japan and know how much japanese people hate blacks. this is just one of their racism.

  9. ST Avatar
    ST

    Found a good entry for this subject. fyi,
    http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4930

  10. Zurui Avatar
    Zurui

    Here is the article source: http://blacktokyo.com/?p=148

    Original article: Obama is a Monkey in Japan?

  11. Gordon Avatar
    Gordon

    You’re all being ridiculous. Despite your own fixation on racial issues that makes this seem relevant, the rest of the world just saw a funny video with a monkey. Stop being overly sensitive.

  12. nene Avatar
    nene

    Hey Ryan,
    Did you hear they pulled it?
    I am sure you were a part of the movement that pushed them to pull it.
    People who think your post was “overreacting” have no idea about the history between Racism and monkeys.
    Hitler put Japanese and monkeys in the same category in his book, but after all, that part was omitted when they published the Japanese version.

  13. Afranshia Char Avatar
    Afranshia Char

    I do not understand how some people could connect a monkey with image of black people.
    How does this perception come from?…very interesting.

    normal people see a monkey dressed as famous people look simply cute and funny.
    do you seriously consider a chimpangee dressed as President Bush is demonstration of racism?

    btw, this monkey is a mascot of e-mobile.
    s/he appears in every commertial of e-mobile.
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=1zKWSZAiXZc

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