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New Nissan advert sparks Gulf furore
by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Thursday, 7 August 2008Posted on Monday, 11 August 2008
Great ad!
Posted by Vishal at 12:16 UAE time
I reckon the 'anger' probably stems from the fact that their agencies could never pull off something so witty.
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Posted on Sunday, 10 August 2008
Get over it
Posted by Nathan Martenson at 15:40 UAE time
Get over it... it was a funny advert... perhaps would have been more funny if they showed the miserliness of the Israelis themselves trying to buy 2 cars for the price of one. hats off to Khalid Omer Abdulla for his wayyyy too cool opinion on the blossoming gas companies... In fact, in USA a blossoming gas company advert would do really well (as they refer to gasoline as gas)! I'll even pay to fund that advert!!!
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Boycott!!
Posted by john do at 13:50 UAE time
Imagine this: Airbus & Boeing boycotting us. I guess we are back to horses, camels and donkeys. Its a funny ad. Lighten up. Anyway, Nissan got FREE AD now for its TIIDA. hehehehe... Thats funny.
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advertisement
Nissan
Posted by Derek Mullings at 13:27 UAE time
Kenneth from Dubai has some very valid points.
It costs around five dollars to get a barrel of oil out of the ground. So how come it costs so much on the world market? Arabs aren't the ones raking in massive profits.
Those multinational oil companies and the WORLD BANK have a lot to answer for.
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HAHAHA
Posted by Hussain M at 10:08 UAE time
i laughed, first of all, there's no evidence that suggests this was aimed to infuriate Saudis in particular, i wasnt offended ...could've been the Kuwaitis... Emiratis even
hence the palastinian accents of the actors in the commercial, even the curses sounded nothing like GCC national would use to insult.
I didnt see any flags flying to indicate slander of a certain people and the way they wore the gutras (headdresses).
to be honest....the middle east DOES hate fuel efficent vehicles...tell me tell me.... how many hybrid vehicles do you see sold in the Gulf.... NOT A SINGLE ONE!
nobody here is boycotting nissan neither will they...their full fuel vehicles are already in high demand...especially the TIIDA (versa for other countries)
i believe the only reason this commercial was attacked is because it originated from israel. But i did find it funny.
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Posted on Saturday, 9 August 2008
Lighten up
Posted by JoshM at 19:46 UAE time
If more people in this world could laugh at themselves we as a race would be in a much better place! If you get angry at something as small as an advertisement jab at your culture your culture really needs to sit back and reevaluate what is actually important to it!
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Great Advertisement
Posted by Mike at 18:01 UAE time
Free speech is a good thing. The advertisement is humorous and not in poor taste. I am amazed by some of the comments made about this and even more amazed that something this innocuous could result in calls for a boycott.
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Nissan Ad
Posted by Derek Mullings at 17:55 UAE time
On top of all that, the idea is so old anyway.
A London agency (Saatchis) ran a similar campaign when I was still at school: 'The tyre that saves petrol.' It showed fictitious American oil baron JR Ewing from Dallas appearing angry.
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Waltzing Ma Tilda
Posted by Geg at 17:38 UAE time
Here we go again. As Prissy Arabs writes above; It is always the same monotonous old cry and taken that way about the smallest of things these days. However, if a young Arab creative had thought of it, it would have been hilarious, albeit they would have been terrified to use it. So it goes without saying, Arabs will take this poke personally, especially coming from Israel and indeed, it is not rocket science to assume there was a deliberate wind up here in the first place. Best way is to answer back the same way, leave Nissan out of it.
Whatever whoever thinks, the ad definitely has humorous elements, which will be taken in bad taste by some, but that has NOTHING to do with poking fun at any particular culture. A particular nationality maybe and it would have been equally funny to most if the butt of the joke were Texan Oil Company executives leaving a hotel, but that would require more content to distinguish that. Besides, using an oil company logo to do that would be out of the question. So, as is, the pun is widely understood because a particular privileged nationality, wealthy beyond dreams through a natural resource bears the brunt. Furthermore, in reality, if they ignore that the ad is Israeli, I bet a lot of Arabs laugh at this too. We did and one of our guys is Saudi. Laugh at it and sting as good back, by coming up with something to do with money or Jewish mothers. Trust me, they will laugh!
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In Extremely Poort Taste
Posted by motivated at 15:32 UAE time
to Khalid Omer Abdulla ... if you think your deplorable response is in any way remotely connected to the humorous (albeit perhaps in bad taste) television advertising you are sadly mistaken. millions and millions of HUMAN BEINGS were deliberately slaughtered during WWII in the gas chambers. this was a harmless television advertisement. so firstly, grow up and secondly, shame shame shame on you for raising something that was one of the worst atrocities known to the human race. your response is disgusting.
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Re: Racist. Double Standard
Posted by Hursh Chandhok at 15:08 UAE time
I would suspect that offensive Jewish stereotypes have been a staple of western culture for a long time now... perhaps Mr. Bob Matheson, Elk Grove, USA is unaware of Shakespeare (ref Shylock), Dickens (ref Fagin) and Philip Roth (ref everything)...
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The problem is Israel, not the advert.
Posted by Anonymous Arab at 14:54 UAE time
As an arab i do not see this commercial offensive in anyway. In fact, it is very humorous and i just had a laugh. However, having this ad come from Israel is what makes it unwelcomed, regardless. The arab world will accept no humour, communication or any form of dealing with Israel. That is the point i believe.
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Where is the tolerance in this?
Posted by sid at 13:28 UAE time
I think people here need to get a sense of humor, and stop taking everything as an insult. If it's not an insult to their religion, it's an insult to their race. If it's not to their race, then they'll find something else to get offended about.
And to compare this advert for a car to the gas chambers in Hitler's era, well that just goes to show that advertising is up against a break wall in this region. No wonder all the ads here are crap!
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Pathfinder vs tiida
Posted by Hasan at 13:24 UAE time
Saeed Anwar, do you know that the pathfinder is much larger than the Tiida, so how can you compare the 2?
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Check the language first
Posted by copdot at 10:38 UAE time
1. If the ad was done by a professional agency then the first thing they should have done is check how the Saudis speak Arabic. The dialect shown here is Egyptian/or a mix of Khaleegi and Egyptian.
2. Saudis dont curse like this.
3. What exactly is the Ad trying to say? again please?
4. The Israeli sense of humour is pretty pathetic.
Its not funny but plainly stupid ad done with the intention of annoying the Gulf Arabs.
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