ANA unveiled a new commercial last week highlighting their expanded service at Tokyo Haneda Airport which is apparently facing quite a bit of backlash:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q_AXd1NGNY
Via Yahoo News:
In the commercial, two Japanese men in ANA uniform discuss in English how they might boost the image of the airline as an international carrier.
One of them says: “Let’s change the image of Japanese people.” “Sure,” replies the other, who is now wearing a blonde wig and an improbably long rubber nose.
White westerners are often believed in Japan to have big noses, blue eyes and blonde hair, characteristics generally thought desirable among Japanese.
The commercial started airing on Saturday, though ANA has now issued an apology and is modifying the ad:
ANA spokesman Ryosei Nomura said the carrier wanted to express the importance of the planned expansion of international services from Haneda and to call on Japanese to go out to see the world.
“But we have received opinions different from the message that we wished to convey. We will modify part of the advertisement and will release the second version soon,” he said.
Earlier, an ANA spokeswoman acknowledged the carrier “has received calls from customers, mostly foreigners, complaining about the ad.”
“We apologised to each of the customers for having caused uncomfortable feelings and also thanked them for bringing up the issue,” she told AFP.
Curious to hear what you guys think — was the ad actually offensive, funny, or just kinda boring?
Regardless, better than when Korean Air launched service to Nairobi and highlighted “the indigenous people full of primitive energy.”
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