Thursday, February 7, 2008

Chinese Pandas and a 'pretend' doctor. Oh my!!!

The New York Times: Artificial-heart pioneer faces scrutiny over Lipitor ads
Dr. Robert Jarvik, who played a leading role in inventing the artificial heart, is facing scrutiny from a congressional panel over his appearance in TV spots endorsing Pfizer cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. Jarvik, who touts the drug's effectiveness, is not a cardiologist, nor licensed to practice medicine. He also is not an oarsman, though he is portrayed as such in an ad that used a body double for scenes that depict Jarvik as rowing across a lake, according to this article. Jarvik did not comment for this article. Pfizer has stood by the spots' accuracy and themes.

NY Times: SalesGenie to pull talking panda spot amid viewer complaints
SalesGenie.com is pulling a Super Bowl spot featuring animated pandas speaking with Chinese accents after receiving complaints from offended viewers. Vinod Gupta, chairman-CEO of SalesGenie.com parent InfoUSA, apologized for the spot, but said the company would not withdraw a second animated Super Bowl ad showing a salesman with an Indian or South Asian accent; the latter spot has not drawn as many complaints, he said.

Of course, it's only natural people would miss the point
I feel like this is one of those situations where the bad guy is trying to make a diversion to get attention off of something much worse. I don't know what it is, but something barmy is going on
Poor Dr Jarvik, he doesn't really row (and it appeared the rowing was just a technique for a cool graph line), he isn't a licensed practising doctor, but- guess what?? He is using Lipitor and it works!
Great that there is a competitor on the market and people will naturally flock to it in droves if it is cheaper. Goodbye Lipitor. But, no need to go crazy over the good doctor. Poor guy. I do wonder why he doesn't have a license though. I smell scandal.
In the end they re released the ad, but I'm already hearing that Jarvik has other skeletons in the closet.


Stereotypes are funny, that's why they're sterotypes
A panda. Not only that, a talking panda. Since when do Panda's f_cking talk??????
And a stereotype is a stereotype is a stereotype. People use them because they are FUNNY and pretty much harmless. If you get the joke, you know it isn't serious and if you don't get the joke it's just a talking panda.
It reminds me of the characters from Richard Scarry's Busy Busy World. The whole book is full of stereotypes and it's awesome. I think the Chinese rep is a Panda and speaks english with a Chinese accent and who would have guessed, but it's a tiger from India and a sneaky ass Fox from France!
Why don't people focus on the real issues? Like I've become massively addicted to chocolate and people should send and buy me some!

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