As someone who’s written about Romanian culture and food among things, I must admit that I have been rather irritated by Folgers Coffee’s most recent ad offering.
The new ad features an American Aid worker receiving a package from America containing none other than Folgers coffee. The aid worker then proceeds to create a make-shift coffee filter so that he can enjoy a taste of liquid Americana in the backwards frozen tundra of Romania, while his local friends stare at the coffee in total amazement as if they had never seen anything like it before. What nonsense.
Check out the video of the ad and some screen shots below:
On a side note, Romanians – as Folgers should know – do not drink much American drip-style coffee. Instead, they drink what is popularly known in the U.S. as “Turkish” or “Arabic” coffee.
But in any case, the sight of American drip coffee should not in anyway be a completely foreign thing for most Romanians as it is commonly sold in supermarkets throughout the country.
…and don’t even get me started on Burger King’s latest marketing move.
I wonder when the Americans will start filming adds in the poor black neighborhoods of their country…and God knows they are plenty of those here.
As a Romanian I felt deeply offended by these commercials and they do not reflect at all Romania life.
Americans proved again with these commercials how narrow minded they are in viewing the world and other cultures.
My boyfriend is Romanian and thereby I am of course, the lover of all things Romanian. Both of these commercials offended me, but I love the comment about Americans being narrow minded…it’s AMAZING what the marketing “wizards” think is great. It’s so transparent when they are clearly marketing to women, blacks, men, etc. And good God you can’t have a smart white guy in a commercial or that is offensive to the minorities and women.
I just thought the first commercial was pathetic because it was like he was living in squalor and had to make his makeshift coffee maker. And the Burger King ad is so lame too. My boyfriend, also a Mircea, said that it was basically like filming the commercial in West Virginia, U.S.A. And God knows we couldn’t show the poor Appalachians as that would be offensive, but kicking other countries in the teeth is okay. I’m proud to be an American, but I also look forward to the day when we retire to Romania.
I’m not Romanian ( my sister-in-law is ) so I don’t see the cues that would triggers the feelings echoed here. However, having read the blog posting and comments about coffee in Romania I am offended for a different reason.
No person who knows good coffee would drink Folgers. It’s not bad coffee. It’s just neither good nor great coffee. I would argue that Europeans have a greater appreciation for good coffee thank a good majority of Americans.
The MacDonald’s commercial is just plain stupid.
These ads are an embarrassment; I don’t even know where to begin: for one thing, the product’s disgusting, and that smug little shit of an “aid worker” should know that the local coffee is far superior. I guess it’s also lost on the marketing geniuses that Romania’s an EU member–did someone forget to pack this kid up and send him back to the States? On behalf of embarrassed Americans everywhere, I apologize. Romania’s a wonderful country (I’ve had the privilege of visiting on several occasions) and it deserves better.
[…] here’s a recent blog post discussing a new Folgers Coffee TV advertising campaign: Folgers: the taste of bad advertising « Jenichka’s Weblog. It’s been about 2-3 months since Folgers last publicly humiliated themselves — so this […]
This is plain “BS”. Romania might not best country in the world, and it might have been pretty bad during the communist time, but it is way different now. I do not know if they have to ask for certain rights for mentioning the country’s name, but these ads are just wrong. I am sure there is a fat/rich guy drinking beer in the Bahamas from the money he made from letting them project this image of Romania. Even though many people are offended by it, no does something about it; what can we do? I think this should be a matter of bigger importance to a national level, and not just an internet debate. We vote for a government to represent us and this is what we get. There are so many people that have business connected to tourism; all the international affairs are affected by this, made not too much, but it got to be a habit. First the Borat Movie, then Folger, now Burger King. What comes next? Romanians are spread all over the world, but pride can their be in telling people where you are from, when they see poverty and lack of knowledge in these ads. The problem is not in shooting ads in Romania, or have showing the conditions of the places there, it is more of projecting the right idea. They can make whatever they want to with the ad, they could have made it look good and everyone would have been happy, but now they risk having a lot of criticism. Maybe it does not affect the people Romanian people that do not travel outside the country, but it sure has an impact on the people that live outside. I, myself, live in the US, and I had people come up to me and ask me what the country is like. All they know about it is the poverty, and that we have many orphans. As the Orphan’s Agencies do a good job finding international support, they enhance the bad image of Romania. I am not saying that they should stop doing that or that it is wrong, my point is that we need other agencies in any domain to enhance the good things in Romania. That way there would be a balance.
This is such a prejudiced advertisement. I as an American feel that we are more open minded and better educated than one might think based on the Folger’s add. Romanian culture is in many ways similar to Italian culture. The languages are also more common from a Latin root ( Romania is not a Slavic country, although it is surrounded by Slavic speaking neighbors). When I visited both countries there was great coffee – great cappuccino both in Milan and in Bucharest. Folger company should be embarrassed by producing such an advertisement. Folger CEO should be scared of a racist(discrimination based on ethnicity) law suite based on approving commercial like that.
And I myself will never buy Folger coffee again, because I don’t want to support racist statements like that one. Plus their coffee sucks anyway.
OMFG. Get over yourself. It’s just a damn commercial. Next you’re going to take apart every damn commercial on television and cry racism. Just because of the clip no one thinks Romanians are a simple, prehistoric race set in Europe, who’s never seen some Folger’s coffee. People don’t even pay attention to those damn commercials because no cares about cheap, disgusting coffee. Romania is a beautiful country with a beautiful heritage and beautiful people. And if people dispute it, that’s because they’ve living under a f**king rock.
And you labeling ‘ALL’ Americans as ignorant makes YOU ignorant. Grow up. You can’t label an entire mass for the actions of a stupid few.
Now, as far as Burger King. Oi. Their food is nasty, their commercials are nasty. What do you really expect from them when they’re making the world a bit more obsese?
I like all those people can called me at (816)232-6604 to put something together because I am native from Romania and is not only for Folger caffee or burger. In 2003 was the second time when I had seen in Habitat magazine a picture represinte two cover carrages with pots and pants on cover and on the graund was few gipsy sleep on. Under this picture was “Romania at 8:30 a.m.” I wrote to this magazine and wrote “Gipsy didn’t represinte majority in Romania and they are everywhere including in U.S. I still have first and second respond. First it was “we didn’t make discrimination” and second “scuse-me. I was there personal and it’s true.
We are the few who knows the true and I don’t know who wants to show Romania are so primitive,poor and bad. For this reason we need to show to all American people what is reality because they trust what they see. All this make me to feel shame and hard to make another believe what I say no what they see. My question is “WHO WANTS TO DENIGRATE ROMANIA, WHO IS BEHINDE TO ALL OF THOSE. I think it’s time to do something it’s our responsability to show the “LITTLE PARIS” how used to be called.
Proctor and Gamble began as war profiteers. What an ignoble organization.
When the USA breaks up into small parts and the huge corporations which thrive and breed on American soil break up with it, the world will be a better place.