The E-Mobile company (a Japan-based cell phone maker) has been using a Japanese macaque as their mascot since at least the beginning of this year, producing a number of TV and print ads with it holding one of their phones in a variety of situations.
One of their recent ideas caused a bit of a stir overseas. To advertise their new line of phones, the macaque is dressed in a suit and standing at a podium as cheering crowds all hold posters saying “CHANGE!”
A group of Americans living in japan made a connection between the mascot and Barack Obama and immediately raised a protest.
The CNN report starts from position that the ad is intentional racism, saying outright that E-mobile was using the monkey to portray Obama.
The Japanprobe article leans the opposite way, seeing it as an overreaction from oversensitive outsiders, although it may also be protesting too much.
The poster ads are still up all around Tokyo (and the rest of Japan, I assume).
Personally, I lean toward the Japanprobe side. Macaques have been used here in human situations in so many ads for so long with no racial connotations at all, that the idea that they suddenly turn into representations of black people in a culture where they never have before comes off as ridiculous and hypersensisitve. Besides, check the poster ad: that monkey’s white. He looks far more like McCain than Obama.
I lived in Japan for a cumulative seven years. I’d vote that they just put their regular mascot into a political background because its in the news at the moment, with no thought at all about anything deeper.
The Japanese people aren’t concerned with politics for the most part. Political campaigning being a big issue for Americans is just something that’s amusing to them, so it’s funny to parody it.
I think it’s an issue of priority. E-Mobile has been using a monkey for years as an advertising mascot. Now they’re invoking a current Presidential candidate who happens to be black. That’s a coincidence not racism.
If, on the other hand, some company waited until a black candidate was around and was then inspired to use a monkey in reference to him, then there’s a legitimate racism issue raised.
I think it is a simple case of people looking to take offense. I made fun of the crazies that protested the Danish cartoons and I would make fun of those taking offense to a phone ad in Japan.
I think it would be very different if they suddenly launched the same campaign here, but they have not.
Looks like political satire to me. The last scene is a crying monkey, which goes along with the messiah syndrome that surfaced early in Obama’s campaign. It parodies the crying/fainting people at his rallies holding up signs that say “change we can believe in”.
And absolutely nothing has changed since people started comparing Bush to a monkey!
…Oh, except for the fact that a black man has become a Presidential nominee and black people are sometimes compared to monkeys by racists. But other than that, nothing at all!
This does sound like a coincidence, but overlooking the context doesn’t do anything.
My view of Japanese society is such that the most racist of the society would be just as likely to view McCain as a monkey man as Obama. The race divide that looms so large here in the US just is not something that I believe matters very much in Japan. If the monkey were being used to lampoon the message of a famous SE Asian politician, then I’d be far more likely to perceive deliberate racism behind the image. As it is, no.
Add to that, that the monkey has been a mascot for the product for some time, I just don’t see the outrage.
Looks like a coincidence to me. The racist connotations of comparing people to monkeys is a western cultural thing that I suspect doesn’t resonate with most Japanese. There’s plenty of genuine racism in Japanese society to be concerned about instead.
Why is the “change” sign in English if it’s a Japanese commercial? This s an ad with what looks like a politician running for office and the English language signs held up are the theme of Obama’s campaign. The crying ape at the end mimics the stories of people crying at the rallies.
