Impress your inscrutable Japanese boss with Jimmy John’s sandwiches
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
From black folks dancing about chicken to DJ’s spinning cheeseburgers on turntables, we can always count on fast food ads to reinforce racial stereotypes.
Jimmy John’s proves to be no exception. Check out this ad, in which a Japanese salariman tries to impress his inscrutable boss in the boardroom — with sandwiches. I’m surprised there was no karate chop anywhere in the ad.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Skye wrote:
Their sandwiches are so good… this ad is so bad…
Posted 05 Apr 2007 at 3:38 pm ¶
Yang-May Ooi wrote:
This reminds of ads in the UK eg (i) Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce where a Chinese woman who “no speakee Engrish” talks about “Wor-ces-ter-shire” sauce while a posh English voice-over mimicked her disdainfully and the humour was all about her accent. I rang up the ads standards commission to complain about racial stereotyping (ii) any ad to do with pot noodles and Chinese stir fry sauces involving young Chinese men doing kung-fuey style nonsense. It’s hideously annoying and patronising.
Posted 05 Apr 2007 at 3:48 pm ¶
Georgia Whitman wrote:
I don’t understand why actors work in these types of commercials. I understand that finding work is tough, but the actors are part of the problem. If the casting companies couldn’t find actors, then perhaps the advertising and marketing companies would have to change their strategy. But, in this global age all they’d have to do is look outside of the States for the “correct minority” to model their theirstereotype.
Posted 07 Apr 2007 at 7:42 am ¶