Secrets of the City

I wonder how the local Hmong will react to Gran Torino, the new Clint Eastwood flick penned by local boy Nick Schenk?

In case anyone (who didn’t open link) is wondering what Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino” has to do with this thread, the subtitle of the new flick could be “Dirty Harry meets the Hmong.”

Plus Eastwood filmed in my old neighborhood barbershop.

There are several local Hmong actors in the Gran Torino, so I am guessing the reaction is going to be somewhat positive.  Although there will be plenty of disention…

I saw this commercial and thought it was kind of offensive, but mostly stupid.

my reaction to that commercial the first time I saw it was, “how is the taste of a guy who subsists on bugs, sticks and the occasional small rodent supposed to influence my burger buying decision?” subsequent viewings have been met with a change of channel.

DouglasD: The young lead is a would-be car thief. Many of the other Hmong portrayed in the movie are gang members and thugs.

Aliecat: The “Burger Virgins” commercials are less offensive than this McDonald’s ad is to women, I thought.

But who am I to think?

I have known Nick since he was living in the spare bedroom of one of my college friends and delivering flooring for construction projects. My partner works with a hmong woman who knows some of the actors from Gran Torino. It’s a small world after all. At least Minnesota is a small state.

If this trend continues, the next fast food teevee comercial will feature white actors in blackface, doing Amos & Andy jokes.

MPR on Gran Torino and the local Hmong reaction.

Miller (and MPR) comes through! Thanks.

Burger King really needs a new ad agency. The “King” thing was stupid, and not just a little creepy from the start. Then they come out with this: a Whopper scented cologne. That’s sure to turn on the ladies.

Here is the agency that did the ads cited in the post.

From Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation:

Grainger had brought a dozen small glass bottles from the lab. As he opened each bottle, I dipped a fragrance-testing filter into it. The filters were long, white strips of paper designed to absorb aroma chemicals without producing off-notes. Before placing the strips of paper before my nose, I closed my eyes. Then I inhaled deeply, and one food after another was conjured from the glass bottles. I smelled fresh cherries, black olives, saut*ed onions and shrimp. Grainger’s most remarkable creation took me by surpriseAfter closing my eyes, I suddenly smelled a grilled hamburger. It smelled like someoneelse in the room was flipping burgers on a hot grill. But when I opened my eyes, there was just a narrow strip of white paper and a smiling flavourist.

so you can be sure that the same chemical used to make your cologne smell like a BK burger is being used to make your BK burger smell like a BK burger.

did you read that blog that bob linked to? oh my, mcdonalds ads are setting feminism back 30 years? Good god people. They’re ads. If you don’t like them, don’t purchase the company’s products.

Who are you to think, baker? j/k

It seems to me that one local Hmong guy is upset. And he is speaking for the the several million Hmongs across the globe? I’m betting the people that got paid to participate in the ads may not be too upset.

I don’t see how “they’re ads” refutes “they’re sexist.”

You’re not nurturing your inner curmudgeon since you turned 40 are you, Kurtis?

I thought it was funny, and I love jazz.

Rat, I am just sick of everyone crying and whining about everything! Just ignore it and get on with your life. my opinion of course. I don’t let these things bother me. Life is too short.

You’re right. They were funny in a rather subtle way, I thought. So seldom do you see humor that isn’t broad or coarse. And it wasn’t just aimed at women: men, too.

Anyone should be able to take a little dig like this.

I’ll remember this every time I see a guy in a coffee shop reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

I recently re-read “Player Piano,” and it was better than I remembered, Rat. There must have been some reason so many guys in coffee shops read Vonnegut novels.

PS: I like jazz, too, and have a sneaking feeling that the Mickey D’s commercials are just putting us all on. For God’s sake, I hope so!

McDonald’s commercials are subtle? That word, I am not sure you know what it means.

And no, I am not curmudgeonly since I turned 40. I was curmudgeonly when I was 10. I was shaking a rake at kids my own age, telling them to get off my lawn.

Vonnegut is really accessible. Junior high school kids read Vonnegut. But besides all that, regular joes go to coffee shops all the time. Their whole stereotype is like 30 years old, pre-Starbucks. Now the union construction guys come to work toting 20 oz coffees from ‘bucks. High school kids stop by the corner shop for a “triple expresso” [sic].

So who needs the dig? People who drink coffee or people who know where Paraguay is? Goddamned Obama-voting elistists with their book-reading and country-heard-ofing!

Frank Luntz says:

http://www.comcast.net/data/fan/html/popup.html?v=973245119

Sensitive much? Almost like giving them poison? Mmmmmmkay. I’m glad I don’t go through life looking for things to get upset about. Yeesh.

Full disclosure: I’m a Whopper Jenna Jameson.

Speaking of annoying-ass commercials, is anyone else sick of the carolers on the Herberger’s commercial? I swear to god I almost took a hammer to my TV this weekend.

You and Christmas just aren’t meshing at all.

did someone say carolers? did someone say Burger King? oh yes.

Oh Aliecat, I was thinking of the big lots ads, primarily on food network, I think. Or A&E. Can’t remeber, but they are sofa king annoying.