January 24, 2017
An advertisement that ran on a Kingaroy radio station has been ruled to have been discriminatory for vilifying Asian people.
The Advertising Standards Board said the ad featured a man who identified himself as “Ping Pong” and spoke with an Asian accent.
Mr Ping Pong rings a concreting company to ask them to fix his driveway “right now”, then offers them sushi.
In the background, a woman can be heard speaking, although her words are unintelligible. Mr Ping Pong refers to her as his mother and asks her to be quiet.
The Board said the complainant/s said the ad depicted a negative stereotype of the Asian community and was inappropriate for radio.
In response, the advertiser said the ad was not racist or degrading in any way, not sexist, and the language was English with an accent.
“When it mentions food it is no different than saying a Vegemite sandwich,” the advertiser contended.
The Board considered whether the ad breached the Advertiser Code of Ethics.
It noted the complainant’s concerns that the ad contained a negative stereotype of the Asian community.
“The Board considered whether the advertisement complied with Section 2.1 of the Code which requires that ‘advertisements shall not portray or depict material in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or section of the community on account of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual preference, religion, disability, mental illness or political belief,’ the Case Report noted.
“A minority of the Board noted the light-hearted tone of the advertisement and considered that the focus is on Mr Ping Pong’s situation rather than his name, and while he clearly has an accent he is speaking English and is able to be understood.
“While imitating an accent is not of itself discriminatory ‘Ping Pong’ is not an Asian name: it is an offensive term that can be used to refer to a person of Asian descent.
“The Board noted that while Mr Ping Pong speaks English, albeit grammatically incorrect, in the background we can hear his mother speaking and considered that the words she speaks are not identifiable as any known language but rather it sounds like she is speaking gibberish.
“A minority of the Board considered that the mother was not intended to be legible (sic) but rather she is providing background noise to prove her existence. The majority of the Board however considered that by having the mother speak made-up words the suggestion is that all Asian languages can just be described as ‘made-up’ as the advertiser has not even tried to use a real language to add authenticity.
“The majority of the Board considered that the advertisement normalises making fun of a person’s English language skills.”
The Board also noted that the concreter answered Mr Ping Pong “in an amused manner and says he will come round as he has “gotta see this”.
The voiceover which follows says no job is “too weird”.
A minority of the Board considered that the reference to ‘weird’ was in the context of the situation and not Mr Ping Pong himself.
The majority of the Board however noted that when Mr Ping Pong describes why he wants the concreter to come round (“Mama has bog in driveway”) the concreter appears to misunderstand as he replies “She did what?!” which suggests he believes the mother has gone to the toilet on the driveway.
The majority of the Board noted that the concreter appeared to accept that this was something an Asian mother would do and considered that this acceptance, along with the reference to weird jobs, amounted to an overall suggestion that Mr Ping Pong and his mother were objects of ridicule.
The Board noted that Mr Ping Pong offers the concreter some sushi if he comes round straight away to fix his driveway.
The Board noted the advertiser’s response that the reference to sushi was no different to saying a Vegemite sandwich and a minority of the Board considered that the reference to sushi is not of itself discriminatory as this is a food eaten by many people in Australia, regardless of their nationality or cultural background.
The majority of the Board, however, noted the cumulative effect of the man’s fake accent, the mother’s made-up language, the naming of the man as Mr Ping Pong, the reference to the situation as weird and the man’s offer of sushi and considered that this amounted to a suggestion that Asian people were being mocked.
The majority of the Board considered that the advertisement presented Asian people in a manner which incited ridicule and that by mocking their command of English grammar and using a fake name, which was considered racist, rather than a real name, the advertisement was making fun of a difference between Western and Asian cultures which was humiliating for people of Asian descent.
Based on this, the majority of the Board determined on January 18 that the advertisement did breach Section 2.1 of the Code and upheld the complaint.
The advertiser responded by saying the ad had already been taken off the air.
“As mentioned, we had already taken the ad off air. We didn’t realise that it would in any way be inappropriate, we can see your point and are organising a new ad,” the advertiser advised.
