It doesn’t work! It reeks of stupid decision. The ads would be far more effective and professional if the voices were left as they are. It’s the same fucking language afterall.
How do you know they’re American ads? Do they have scenes that look uniquely North American, such as the front of a Colonial frame house in the suburbs, a kitchen with larger US/Canada style appliances, or a top-loading washing machine?
If it makes you feel any better, the talking ATMs in the US all speak with proper BBC English accents. “Please select the action you would like to PRO-cess.”
Does it make you feel any better to know that a lot of our ads have speakers with English accents to begin with? For some reason the accent is perceived as more intelligent than, say, a deep southern drawl.
Both of you underestimate an englishman’s ability to tell the difference between an english accent and a normal American accent (not the “deep southern drawl”)
The advert was a mcdonalds ad with kids who were clearly American. (if not Canadian)
And if the kids were using english accents then why would they dub it?? because it was clearly dubbed.
McDonalds, eh?
So when the American Kid say “French Fries” it was dubbed into “Chips.” That must have looked funny. Sort of like an old Kung Foo film.
You have taking ATMs in the US? Dayum. Now I am going to feel like we have some sort of country bumkin banking system. Gahhh.
I should probably mention that the ads I am refering to are played on UK TV.
The adverts are for American products with Americans speaking perfectly normaly (as Americans do) but the voices are badly dubbed over with obviously english accents. Not American ‘English’ accents (which doesn’t exist, and I doubt those ATMs you speak of are using actual English accents)
By ‘english’ I don’t mean the way we pronounce certain words. I mean the way the speech sounds like it’s coming from an English person. There is absolutely no offence in my OP.
No! What the fuck is going on. Did my fingers type different words than my brain intended??? No, I checked the OP. I mean the kids are American, but the voices are English.
And even if they weren’t American (doubtful) I am pitting the habit of dubbing ads made on one country using the same language but different accent of another country, for airing in that other country. The fact or theory that the kids are American is irrelevant.
Was I Whooshed?? I LIKE most American accents. The ad would have been more effective if they LEFT the original audio track, with the kid’s own voices.
Is the mention of the word ‘American’ by a non-American automatically offensive???
Eh? Who has taken offence? 
Not me, I made a really weak joke that apparently flummoxed Lobsang.
Sorry I went a bit tin-foil-hat for a moment there. It just seemed like people were being sarcastic.
And many of the replies seemed to misunderstand the OP.
Deepest Apologies. I thought you were being sarcastic as if offended.
And, as a citizen of the Most Powerful Nation the World Has Ever Seen® I am completely incapable of being offended by someone from one of the 100? 200? oh, I don’t really care HOW MANY there are, benighted nations we are forced to share this planet with. He should feel all hot and squishy that Americans even noticed he posted.
The bilingual ads I’ve enjoyed lately are the ones in which lead is played by the same person in both the English and Spanish versions and you can tell that it’s the same person speaking. Bob Villa’s Sears ads are more fun in Spanish though, as a citizen etc, I don’t speak Spanish. Just show me the product and show me the price and I don’t care what language it’s in.
OTOH, those fine Americans being dubbed into English? That’s shameful.
I hope I did not confuse the situation with the use of a “Dayum”, after the references to a Southern drawl. It is just a lovely sounding word. Anyway, I am English and I am with you!
So Lobsang, when you say “English” voices, which variety do you mean, Princess Anne or Michael Caine? Sid the Sexist, Biffa Bacon, or The Modern Parents? How abaht The Fat Slags with their “Essex girl” voices? Magrat, Nanny Ogg, or Granny Weatherwax?
Doesn’t matter. They’re generic english children’s voices. The voices do not match the mouth movements of the kids in the ad, so it is dubbed. The only reason to dub something is if it is in a ‘foreign’ accent. The reason I believe the ad was originally American is that I feel it is highly unlikely for an American company to set an advert somewhere other than America which is intended for distribution to other english speaking countries (who can dub it if they want)
I think it’s unlikely they’d make an ad in australia and then transfer it to britain to be shown (dubbed). And I can tell the kids are speaking english by their mouth movements.
It’s not as bad as the German adverts dubbed into English (Kinder Surprise comes to mind) - they have to draw out each sentence, because the German ones take longer. And there’s no chance of lip-sync.
I guess I’m pitting the (slightly) patronizing need someone felt for their ad to be dubbed with English accents for airing in the UK. Like we brits need to hear english voiced in our ads or we’ll get upset. We get American ads that aren’t dubbed all the time, and it does not seem remotely odd. It does seem odd when we get an ad done in the American style but with badly dubbed english audio. So the advert becomes less effective than if the original american audio was used.
See, I question that. I think they do this a lot, make one ad and dub it into different languages…or accents. And it’s only when they want to promote something particularly American, English, Austrailian, etc about it do they not dub it. I remember a bahroom cleaner ad I saw there and here, that was not only dubbed but with a different script.(Because "whiffs a bit, doesn’t it? doesn’t quite translate into American :D.) My point though, is I bet in the Australian version they used and Australian voice over.
And there are American ads that are dubbed from…er…proper English, Spanish, etc etc…because, yes, they think unless that’s what they’re promoting, it would be distracting.
Actually what I found weird was the times English ads made a point of using American accents…but stuck to English pronunication. Like some fast food place that was advertising Texas style BBQ, and has a deep Texas drawl talking about a steak fill-ett…now that sounded weird :D.