# Is an American accent used to sell products overseas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 23, 2012, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648 "2012-04-23T01:06:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/21 "2012-04-23T19:25:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/22 "2012-04-23T20:54:54Z")
[Here’s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0O4JYmsWq8) 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. ---
**Author:** ![nudgenudge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9f8e36/32.png) [@nudgenudge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nudgenudge)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/23 "2012-04-23T21:27:58Z")
Budweiser ran some ads a few years ago which made fun of Americans’ supposed ignorance of “soccerball”. Like this one: [- YouTube](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. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/24 "2012-04-23T21:34:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/25 "2012-04-23T21:49:22Z")
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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/26 "2012-04-23T22:24:29Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/27 "2012-04-23T23:02:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/28 "2012-04-25T11:25:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/29 "2012-04-25T13:53:56Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > 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! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/30 "2012-04-25T15:08:40Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/31 "2012-04-25T17:35:34Z")
> [@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 😉 ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/32 "2012-04-25T21:09:54Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/33 "2012-04-26T13:36:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648/34 "2012-04-29T08:06:57Z")
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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-american-accent-used-to-sell-products-overseas/619648.md?page=1)