Is an American accent used to sell products overseas?

[beowulff]

In the US, TV commercials often use a character with a distinctive accent - the Geico Geko, for example. I was wondering if other countries have ads that feature American accents, and what they might be pitching.

[Candyman74]

Rarely here in the UK. There are occasional examples, but they're notable. I also admit that I can't for the life of me remember what any of them are, which suggests that they're not very effective!

[GuanoLad]

Not here in AU. Only if it's the exact same ad that the US gets with no editing, especially some of the cheesier infomercials.

What we do have, for some reason, is a lot of ads with British accents. And I see we're now getting ads for a supermarket chain presented by Dawn French*, of all people.

*Who has recently lost a lot of weight, and is trying to gain it back via her eyelashes

[sisu]

American accents are sometimes used in Australia when it is a celeb promoting something [tiger woods etc] but to be honest most aussies would switch off if we heard y'all etc.

[drewtwo99]

In America we get British and French accents to make things have an air of sophistication to them. They'll use an Italian accent to hock Italian food, and similarly Australian for Australian beer.

But what strong reason would there be to use an American accent in another country? It's not like the generic American accent is known for sounding particularly appealing, classy, or trustworthy.

[Krokodil]

A surprising number of TV commercials in Korea are in English, and they tend more towards an American dialect than a British one, though the speakers are Korean.

The international cable channel commercials have a lot of both US and UK accents.

[AK84]

I have heard a couple of commercials employing what seems to be an attempt at a Texan accent for an American Style Grill.

[Girl From Mars]

It's worth mentioning though that many ads here in Australia are US/UK/European produced with an Aussie voice dub. Particularly car and FMCG products like toothpaste etc. Sometimes they even stick in some random 'Aussie shot' to help convince us that it's locally shot. (Colgate Total, I'm looking at you...)

[tellyworth]

There was a series of ads in Australia a few years back that used American accents:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx_kxp3R2oU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3n_ZMVLDqg

Pretty sure those are fake accents tho.

[Charley]

Occasionally we get non-dubbed US commercials, usually on the cheaper satellite/cable channels. It is fairly jarring, and it feels lazy to me (not the accent, the lack of redub!). The exceptions are the celebrity endorsements of course. I can remember Burger King ads, but not really any other cases where an American accent is used to achieve a particular effect.

[blindboyard]

Sometimes in adverts for movies, maybe, in the same way Dolmio use claymation Italians with Mario moustaches and thick accents to advertise their Italian food. Otherwise, more Russian-accented meerkats than Americans.

[Cat Jones]

Irish radio seems to use the US accent at times, on Today FM I can think of 2 - for a US insurance company setting up there and for a "shopping village", ie out of town mall. I'm alos pretty squre I've heard an American accent used on commercials here in France but it's more to poke fun I'm afraid.

[psychonaut]

There are ads for Ben & Jerry's ice cream which the German movie theatres run. The voice-over is in German but has a thick American accent.

[glaeken]

An advert I can think of at the moment on UK TV that features American accents is for Ocean Spray. It particularly seems to be playing on the folksy type nature of the growers from where ever that company is based.

[Alessan]

Here they're used humorously. I'm sorry to say, but an American accent sounds incredibly silly in Hebrew.

[I Love Me, Vol. I]

Originally Posted by tellyworth

There was a series of ads in Australia a few years back that used American accents:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx_kxp3R2oU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3n_ZMVLDqg

Pretty sure those are fake accents tho.

The accents seem to me to be real. It's interesting that they appear to use Americans in the spots to make fun of them. in the ads, the American guys ineffectively pitch bad ideas to an investment company and are quickly shot down (stupid Americans!).

[Corcaigh]

For the most part, adverts are dubbed with an Irish accent here.

Originally Posted by Cat Jones

for a US insurance company setting up there

Originally Posted by psychonaut

There are ads for Ben & Jerry's ice cream

Originally Posted by glaeken

An advert I can think of at the moment on UK TV that features American accents is for Ocean Spray.

These ^^ are examples of ads that have American accents, I also remember one for an American car that was [I believe] an actual American advert that was being shown over here.

[beowulff]

Thanks for all the answers.

Of course, there isn’t a single “American” accent any more than there is a single English one. I don’t sound much like someone from Alabama or Maine.

That said, I can understand why people might like to poke fun at the stereotypical “American” accent - Texans (like Bush) can really sound like morons, even to Americans.

[An Gadaí]

In Ireland it's common enough. Commerical presentation type shows are often narrated in American accents and some local products use cod-American accents to sell their wares. There was an ad recently for 48 months, this mobile phone contract aimed at 18 year olds, it was narrated by an American but meant to be about Irish teens so used typically Irish names. It was odd and may well have distracted from the ad's message.

[palacheck]

Originally Posted by beowulff

Thanks for all the answers.

Of course, there isn’t a single “American” accent any more than there is a single English one. I don’t sound much like someone from Alabama or Maine.

That said, I can understand why people might like to poke fun at the stereotypical “American” accent - Texans (like Bush) can really sound like morons, even to Americans.

I think a subdued Texan accent is one of the most pleasant accents on the planet.

Not a fan of Aussie accents myself. Stop phrasing everything as a question, it's exhausting.

[Sicks Ate]

Not a significant enough question for another thread, but I have a questions about Australian accents in American commercials, to wit, Foster's beer and Outback Steak House.

To me (a midwesterner) the accents on these commercials seems waaay over the top, though Foster's is maybe not quite laying it on quite as this as Outback.

I spent some time with Australians in the military, and I seem to remember their accents being distinctive, but much more muted than these commercials.

[Alessan]

Here's an American accent - used for humor - in an Israeli MacDonald's commercial from about four or five years back. Americans have a notoriously hard time pronouncing Israeli names.

[nudgenudge]

Budweiser ran some ads a few years ago which made fun of Americans' supposed ignorance of "soccerball". Like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjI-qh37xf0 . Although I'm not entirely sure the actor doing the voice is actually American.
I there's a current ad for Walt Disney World which has an American voiceover. But yes, it's mainly for things that are inherenty American, or it's tongue in cheek, or it's some really cheap infomercial where they don't bother to dub over it.

[astorian]

This is going back a few decades...

When I was a kid in the Seventies, we often spent our summers in Ireland. And there were quite a few commercials on Irish TV in which actors or spokesmen put on various types of "American" accents.

I clearly remember a Chicago-style Twenties gangster who used to appear in ads for some kind of packaged turkey meat.

And there were occasionally "cowboys" with painfully bad drawls in commercials for products that were supposed to be rugged or manly.

[Apollyon]

Not generally in NZ either, but one notable exception was a series of ads for one of the local banks (about 60 different ads over 10 years!)

The generally well-liked and received (and award winning) series of ads featured American actor Stephen Mellor as fictional New York banker Ira Goldstein, sent to NZ to learn about (read: humorously spy on) ASB to learn all their trade secrets. Ira's apparently American boss on the other hand was played by an Aussie.

[tellyworth]

Originally Posted by Sicks Ate

To me (a midwesterner) the accents on these commercials seems waaay over the top, though Foster's is maybe not quite laying it on quite as this as Outback.

Can you link to examples on Youtube? Aussie accents vary.

[GuanoLad]

I thought Outback Steakhouse currently had a New Zealander as its star, Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords. Maybe they've moved onto someone new now.

[Richard Pearse]

There is an ad in Australia that features Australian actor Simon Baker (The Mentalist) who, oddly, speaks with an American accent. I'm not sure whether they were going for some kind of sophistication, it was an ad made for the American market as well, or he's lost his Australian accent.

[Corcaigh]

Originally Posted by An Gadaí

There was an ad recently for 48 months, this mobile phone contract aimed at 18 year olds, it was narrated by an American but meant to be about Irish teens so used typically Irish names. It was odd and may well have distracted from the ad's message.

bolding mine...

mother of god, all this time I thought that was a trailer for a movie!

[MrDibble]

Occasionally here (South Africa) - usually they'll employ an actual Merkin for this - often for US-originated fast food joints like KFC and MickeyD, but just occasionally to make fun, like a local fried chicken chain that has a "soul food" theme.

[Disheavel]

Originally Posted by I Love Me, Vol. I

The accents seem to me to be real. It's interesting that they appear to use Americans in the spots to make fun of them. in the ads, the American guys ineffectively pitch bad ideas to an investment company and are quickly shot down (stupid Americans!).

In my very brief acting career (exactly 1 commercial that was never shown), I got to play the "stupid American" in a Spanish beer commercial. The commercial involved an American watching a football game and saying effectively "I/Anyone could do that" during a penalty kick. Then being magically transported to take the kicker's place and then running away due to the pressure. They went with another guy in the final cut as he had a more Southern accent/drawl and was probably a better actor. It was a free trip to Madrid so I can't complain too much. But I did like being picked out as being a stereotypical American guy by the Spanish- hey wait a minute

[An Gadaí]

Originally Posted by Corcaigh

bolding mine...

mother of god, all this time I thought that was a trailer for a movie!

See! It's a load of bollocks for precisely that reason but hey they're hip with the kids.

[Lust4Life]

In the UK we have adverts for Australian beer where a down to earth honest comedic Aussie is shown at English "does" where we actually send ourselves up by portraying us English as slightly camp upper class tits with incredibly ott accents .

The Irish are shown as cute and rural in Irish holiday or beer adverts, and as someone else mentioned upthread there are a series of popular adverts showing Meercats with Russian acccents selling insurance.

But American accents are rare.

[Banksiaman]

In a weird reversal an actor mate of mine in Australia was recruited to appear in a Folger's Coffee advert for American television, speaking in American accent.

The argument was that the particular advert had to appear 'real' so no known faces were to be used. It meant two weeks of voice coaching for about half a dozen Aussies, and filming for another week of casual dinner party conversation, ending in 'coffee anyone?'.

But generally, no. Over-dubbing at minimum.