The mistake that the advertisers are making here is what was being pitted. We hear American accents every hour of our waking lives…why would hearing one in a generic advert be so distracting?
“We hear American accents every hour of our waking lives…”
Then I’d think you’d be happy for the break 
.
Is it possible that the reason they over dubbed it is because they were advertising something like a quarter pounder? You guys are metric, right? Y’all guys probably call it something else. If the product names are changed from country to country then it would probably be cheaper to just over dub it and use the same video footage. That’s just a SWAG though.
We still call it a Quarter Pounder here. We’re flexible like that.
Oh, nevermind then. I guess I’ve just seen Pulp Fiction too many times. 
Yes, yes…I know that John Travolta didn’t go to England in the movie.
I should have added, (after “we’re flexible like that”), “unlike France”. (which If I remember correctly is the country Sam Jackson refers to.)
Afterall, The french government are the people who banned muslim headscarfs in schools, which, even being an atheist, I say was out of order.
These girls want to conform with what they (strongly) believe in. They are unlikely to ever reject their beliefs. So making illegal one of their customs is downright cruel.
I wonder if the less than universal approbation the U.S. is enjoying at the moment had any influence on the decision.
“You want Freedom Fries with that?”
What would you have preferred they called it? Le quart de livre au fromage?
As a Briton living in America, I have to say… you’d be amazed how many ads HERE use British voice actors.
I think it’s because they play well to the whole country, whereas Americans tend to have strong attachments or dislikes for other Americans based largely on where the hell they come from. (See John Edwards play the electable good Southern boy in Decision 2004!)
If I ever go to England I must be sure to spend some time watching TV just so I can see these dubbed over commercials myself. Seriously, this is the sort of linguistic quirk that I find fascinating.
Surely, there’s a simple explanation. Shooting a TV ad is expensive. Dubbing a voice-over is cheap. The advertisers think they’re saving a lot of money because (they think) you’re too stupid to work out that it’s dubbed. TV ads insult your intelligence, and this way you get twice the insulting of intelligence for your money. Or theirs.
There’s some kind of regulation in Ireland to provide work for Irish actors which means a certain number need to be dubbed into Irish accents. On some cable channels, we also get the ads that the Britishers see.
Thus we get English ads dubbed into Irish accents.
We also get US ads dubbed into English accents.
And we get US ads dubbed into Irish accents.
Then we get Euro-ads dubbed into English accents.
And Euro-ads dubbed into Irish accents.
(And for some reason, these Euro ads all think that milk content is a great selling point for chocolate.)
And the dubbing is almost universally SHITE. Why the hell do they bother?
What I found interesting were the TV ads in the U.K. which were clearly shot in the U.S. (as was obvious from the backgrounds) and in which people used American accents (in so far as they spoke at all) but which were never shown in the U.S. They were made strictly for the British TV market. Apparently the advertisers felt that to sell the product it worked better if they showed it being used in the U.S.
It was also interesting to occasionally see TV ads with American celebrities endorsing products which shown strictly on British TV. A couple of recent examples are the one with Kim Cattrall visiting her “auntie,” talking about tea, and the one with William Shatner in a bathrobe at the family’s breakfast, talking about cereal. Well, O.K., actually both Cattrall and Shatner are Canadian.
Incidentally, the language is English and the dialects are called American English, British English, Canadian English, Australian English, Irish English, etc.
For some reason?! Get a grip, man! It’s bloody obvious. For starters, old bean, it isn’t an accent. It’s English as God intended it.
“British English” might be official in the US, but it’s a complete misnomer. It actually means English English, as Scots English and Welsh English are vastly different. [/hijack]
Fair point. Perhaps it’s called British English because English English sounds like a misprint.
And Geordie English, And Scouse English, and Brummie English, and Cockney English.
There’s a Geordie I know who I can’t understand a single bloody word of. (althoug I understand most geordies perfectly)
And Manx English. (ranges between scouse and brummie)
But British English (notwithstandig jjimm’s point) refers to the “standard”, in other words a somewhat idealised version of “Home Counties” English.
Ok. I’d say British English is a valid term. I’d say it’s the accent most BBC newsreaders use.
I think I have it. I’ve been told I have no detectable accent by several people.