The largest adjustment for Americans (beyond the Diet Coke scandal) is the television. The sports are completely weird (see below). The shows are a mixture of Arabian, American, and British programming. There does not seem to be a consistent schedule and there are no commercials (generally) during the programs. However, there are some commercial breaks that are either 20 minutes of commercials or upcoming movie release specials. (I cannot watch the "Making of Shrek the Third" anymore!!)
The commercials usually run in English and Arabic. However, some of them only run in Arabic, leading to my new favorite game: Guess the product. Now, in the US, one would try to guess the product before they show it. Here, it is just to guess the product in general. Trust me.
Here were the toughest so far:
1) All the green and red (walk and don't walk) men jump out of the street lights and perform an epic battle, greens ultimately defeating the reds. Watch
Turns out that this is for Snickers, Don't Stop. Cute but really violent and confusing in Arabic. Even with the Snickers logo at the end, as it makes no sense without the tag line.
2) This Arab woman is eating some sort of spread on bread. It is in a mayonnaise jar and I don't judge because everyone here loves mayo like they are British. Then, she puts it in the fridge and sees some nacho chips on the counter and eats the "mayo" with the chips. Then she repeats the same thing with a plate of vegetables! Then, she puts it away, walks away, and goes back and just eats it straight out of the jar with a spoon! Now I am confused. Mayo is OK but this is a little crazy. She finally stops eating it when the phone rings and she meets her friends for dinner. (She can't eat there because she is so full from "mayo" all day) I couldn't get this one on my own. I went in search of this product at the grocery store. After some hunting, I found that it is cheese spread. I was going to have to leave if people were that excited about mayonnaise. (I couldn't find this one! I will keep looking!)
3) This one takes the cake. I had the product name from the commercials Rani Citrus. 3 guys are drinking said product when all of a sudden, THOUSANDS of men in hot dog costumes chase them all over the Mall of the Emirates. Finally, they are surrounded by all these hot dogs and they jump off the balcony! WHAT!
Watch video here Under "What's on TV" (the upper left-hand thumbnail)
I had to ask someone who spoke Arabic. I explained this at work and at the end I told them they show Rani Citrus drink. They are all like, "Well, that is what the commercial is for." (Yeah, I got that part) And the hot dogs? Apparently, Rani Citrus has pulp in it and has been running a campaign called "Get Chunked." They were human-sized piece of pulp chasing people around the mall. Still, I am not sure why. Do these guys not want to get chunked? If not, why would they even drink Rani? Or they wanted to get chunked and it is fun to run from the pulp? I am still out on this one due to it's complete randomness!
4 comments:
I love the commercials! I think the Phallic Drink Commercial is just some Arabic gay guys playing "hard to get". I mean, they could maybe take on ONE of those gigantic hot dogs, but thousands? That's just too many phalluses (or is it phalli?)
Its a take on the sex appeal we do here with boobs. But instead--with the hot dog. You do the math.
I *heart* the middle east.
I heart it too. One would think since this mindset is appealing, they would be a little more cool with the "alternative lifestyle"!!
i think we need some hot dog chasing commercials here.
just to spice things up.
I think there is a severe lack of extreme meat products in the American culture. We need a movement for more Hot Dog chasing commercials- it is only fair!!
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