Yet another hijack (but isn’t that what a thread is, anyway - hijack upon hijack?), as someone with a background in linguistics, I tend to notice what type of people they use on the BBC World Service (radio). Interestingly, it’s either the UK standards, i.e. Standard English, Standard Scottish English, Standard Welsh English, and even Standard Irish English (not heard much Standard Northern Ireland English - is there such a thing (Allan Green the football commentator, perhaps), OR foreigners who speak impeccable British English (a female French newsreader comes to mind). I’m referring, of course, to staff broadcasting from HQ in Bush House (or wherever).
For reasons of comprehensibility, presumably, you don’t get broad Geordies and Scousers or dialectal Aberdonians. But, is there just a bit of snobbery in the fact that you don’t get people who speak with perfectly comprehensible accents, like Brummie or Surrey?
Bush House is off Oxford Street, IIRC. And the “French” newsreader is French-Canadian.
Lobsang, the newsreader accent you’re referring to is RP (Received Pronunciation), which is definitively English, not Scots, Welsh, or Northern Irish. There are standardised versions of Scots, Welsh, or Northern Irish too, but “British” English encompasses all those other nations too, and is therefore far too broad a brush. I’d hazard that Glaswegian differs from Cornish to a greater degree than, say, the accent of someone from New Jersey differs from that of someone in Minnesota.
You think that’s bad? You should hear some of Outback Steakhouse’s radio commercials here in the US! The worst fake Australian accents to ever actually be recorded professionally…
From what I understand, Hollywood actors often film commercials in Japan, England, etc to earn extra money and to avoid being labelled a sell-out or to have their celebrity dimmed by being seen shilling the product of the week.
I mean, I know I would be a little weirded out by seeing Tom Hanks in a commercial for Campbell’s soup.
You’re thinking of Broadcasting House, which is where the nationwide BBC radio stations are based. Bush House, home of the World Service, is on Aldwych off the Strand.
And Ant and Dec (of Pop/American/World Idol fame) are Geordies who have appeared on US TV.
Back to the OP: I too am annoyed by bad dubbing of stupid ads, although the Continental ones have a certain kitsch appeal (Mentos ads, anyone?). It’s even stupider when they’re dubbing known actresses: Andie McDumbass seems to be perpetually overdubbed, as is Milla “Multipass!” Jovovich. Do they think we’ve never heard these people speak before?
Lenor, anyone?
Lenor had a really nice ad, with a gruff American voice. It worked well. Then all of a sudden the exact same ad had weedy English voice. Made it sound stupid.
(It’s the one with the woman who lived in a shoe, and the man who lived in a slipper)
sigh I had a well-written post typed but I lost it on preview by accidentally hitting the ‘back’ scroll button on my mouse. So bugger it, here’s a rough’n’ready version instead.
They do the same thing in Australia and it drives me batshit-crazy. If you can see the mouths moving it NEVER works. When an Aussie actor gets stuck trying to mimic the cadence of the original American actor, you end up with a weird stop/start kind of speech that doesn’t sound like any kind of normal Aussie, but nor is it American. It’s some kind of freakish hybrid person, and they’re trying to get you to buy their stuff!
Slightly more successful are the pure voiceovers, where you don’t see anyone actually talking. But here the ad companies make a different mistake - now we have an advert that’s full of African-American kids or adults. Perhaps they think they’re interchangeable with Aboriginals - who knows? If so it’s offensive on a whole lot more levels than just their assumption that the viewing public are too stupid to tell the difference between a massively underrepresented segment of the population - ie: African-anything - and their own indigenous population.
A quick trip to the Australian Bureau of Statistics to provide a cite for how much of our population would include African reveals that the number is so small that it doesn’t even get mentioned and instead ends up lumped somewhere under ‘other’. Sorry I can’t get more specific for you guys’n’gals.
No matter which way you cut it, dubbing advertisments into local accents is stupid and annoying. Especially since we get a massive amount of US television on our free-to-air channels, let alone on cable. We’re well acquainted with pretty much any US accent you care to throw our way. (Well, the ones from actors anyway, who tend to speak a little clearer. I’ll admit to having had a couple of ‘huh? what?’ moments in conversation with my friend from Louisiana, but only when we relaxed too much and forgot to separate our words properly.)
They’re not even Australian accents, or a parody thereof. They’re a badly done, broad parody of a bad “strine” accent. Purely devastating.
Sting’s a Geordie and he has the accent, though he’s learned to cover it well like Knopfler. But it comes out on certain words, or if he’s joking around, or if he’s asked, or if he’s tired. If you watch any of his various documentaries and “candid behind the scenes” things, you’ll hear it frequently.
By McDumbass, I presume you mean McDowell. Interestingly enough, she was dubbed in her first major film (Tarzan: The Legend of Greystoke) because her accent (I believe she’s from Georgia) was considered inappropriate when the film was being edited. The first time anyone saw her on the big screen, Glenn Close’s voice was coming out of her mouth. If only they could dub in Glenn Close’s talent…
I’m curious: twice in this thread someone has said that, accents unheard, the kids in the advert were clearly American. What makes this clear? Without mentioning teeth (oops) I have to guess that the cut of someone’s clothing might be markedly different in America and can be spotted instantly by a knowledgeable Brit.
Apart from a clear difference in the cut or style of clothing, I don’t know if I could detect someone who was ‘clearly English’ or ‘clearly Irish’ simply by the shape of his or her eyes, lips or face. There are some well-known Brits, notably the handsome actor-types, that look … well, pretty much like the people I’m used to seeing. (Such people fly under my recognition radar.) There are a very, very few people that I might say, “Yep, that person looks like what I think of as British,” but I couldn’t do it reliably.
The only other thing that leaps to mind is the lip-synching. It’s clear you can tell it’s been dubbed, but how do you know it wasn’t dubbed from, say, Irish-accented children?