e-Mobile Japan released a commercial that uses a monkey politician standing before a crowd chanting and holding up signs calling for “Change” Sound familiar?

We’ve seen Obama’s “Change.” theme in his campaign and e-mobile Japan decided to take their own spin on the motivational theme while mashing their own cultural twist on it.

Many Americans were offended with this commercial portraying Obama as a monkey. Granted it can be seen as offensive and many media outlets have pushed it out in this light, I decided to at least argue the other side because monkeys have actually become a pop culture trend in Japan. Japanese TV shows use monkeys as main characters in their shows. Pankun & James is a television show about a Chimpanzee and a Bulldog who are best friends (think Rob & Big, but with animals).

So while it may be offensive in some eyes, in some it’s seen as motivational.

Source: Gizmodo

NIECEE’s TAKE AWAYS:

• Be efficient in resources. It’s not enough to know things at the surface anymore. You need to know all the details.

• Be unbiased in ideology & cultural barriers. People in America didn’t know monkeys were a trend in Japan, and people in Japan didn’t know that it would be offensive to portray Obama as a monkey. Instead the media decided to take a biased take on it.