A radio ad that made me say "WTF?"

I heard this radio ad on my way into work this morning at about 5am. THis ad was on a local talk radio station that is affiliated with FOX news.

The ad started out with a female talking to her dad asking why his hair had turned white. The dad explained that he was painting her old bedroom because he is participating in a foriegn student hosting program.

The commercial went on with the dad saying that it would be great for his grandson to be exposed to a different culture and that the student that would live in his home would be from Cairo. The daughter seemed to agree and then the people responsible for the ad gave their information about contact info.

The WTF part was the very last sentence, spoken by the man.

"Imagine my grandson, speaking arabic." -END OF AD

It just made me do the confused dog head tilt thing. What are your thoughts?

What was the race or nationality of the people (Dad and daughter)?

Their diction sounded northern caucasion.

reply to post by BingeBob


head tilted also.

it would have been better if the ad said " imagine my grandson, speaking HEBREW"

I'm pretty sure that ad wasn't designed for those who cocked their heads sideways in confusion.

The ad was for people who somehow think it would be glorifying to speak arabic. I guess y'all can figure out who that might be.

OH NOES! You mean it's possible that in the future people would possibly want to take part in other cultures?!? WE cant let that happen!

[End Sarcasm]

Seriously though the real WTF here is that you think that's a bad thing. To put it simply, the real problem with our country and the world today is people and their geo-centrism thinking that just because, for example, a man would want his child to experience other cultures and learn what really is a beautiful language that it must be bad.

No their is no WTF here except for this: WTF is wrong with wanting more culture?

What's wrong with someone learning a second language? Would that not be a good thing? I can only pray that my children have enough interest in learning a second + language. As the poster above stated, would it have been better if he said Hebrew, instead of Arabic?

--airspoon

Strange they didnt just say "imagine my grandsoe speaking a second language."

The specific mention of a language is what puzzles me. Subconsciously trying to encourage hosting of Arabic speaking exchange students? Like "hey, I want the one from the commercial."

Advertising is designed to grab people's attention in any way it can.

This advert clearly worked, as here you are talking about it. Maybe a few other people are talking about it too, because it made them go "WTF?".

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
Strange they didnt just say "imagine my grandsoe speaking a second language."

The specific mention of a language is what puzzles me. Subconsciously trying to encourage hosting of Arabic speaking exchange students? Like "hey, I want the one from the commercial."

Read the OP. It said the example was of an exchange with an Egyptian student. In Egypt people speak Arabic. There is NOTHING strange about this.

The only strange thing is that there's actually people who take issue with this. What the hell?

Every foreign exchange student I have ever met speaks English when they come to the US. Some will say something in their native language, so long as they don't feel like you are asking them to perform a trick. They might teach a couple words but that is about it.

As for US students, they ship to families that speak English. Those students might learn a few phrases by immersion, but that is about it.

So guess the grandfather was shipping grandson off for a new one

Pixus nailed it. It;s advertising and it worked. Even you are talking about it. On the other hand do you live in a place where there are lots of arabic migrants (say detroit)?

Originally posted by BingeBob
I heard this radio ad on my way into work this morning at about 5am. THis ad was on a local talk radio station that is affiliated with FOX news.

The ad started out with a female talking to her dad asking why his hair had turned white. The dad explained that he was painting her old bedroom because he is participating in a foriegn student hosting program.

The commercial went on with the dad saying that it would be great for his grandson to be exposed to a different culture and that the student that would live in his home would be from Cairo. The daughter seemed to agree and then the people responsible for the ad gave their information about contact info.

The WTF part was the very last sentence, spoken by the man.

"Imagine my grandson, speaking arabic." -END OF AD

It just made me do the confused dog head tilt thing. What are your thoughts?

Damn......I'm still trying to figure out why his hair turned white! Surely it wasn't the paint because any daughter with half a brain cell can differentiate white paint in someones hair, no?

Stress then? The anticipation of someone from Cairo sleeping over can cause stress in the form of white hair?

WTH kinda ad was this?

FOX? Don't ya just love 'em?

Well to answer some of those that say im an idiot for finding this wierd...

I love studying other cultures...Ancient and current...And i would love to have the dexterity and time to learn a 2nd language. I think though, that it would be prudent to master your 1st language before dabbling in another and to learn about your own culture before adopting that of another country.

They could have picked any other country...Ireland (ok im a little biased), Russia, China, Israel, India, Sweden, Spain, Brazil, Nigeria....

THey picked Egypt...Now they could have hilighted the culture aspect and what could have been taught about the history, economy and world status of the country; but they didnt...they hilighted the grandson learning to speak arabic.

The reason for the "WTF?" was the extra effort at the end of the commercial to say that the grandson will learn arabic...

Nothing wrong with being multi-lingual its quite useful. I speak 6 languages and a few dialects. As to the ad.. sounds like it needs to be done better.. Exchange learning programs benefit everyone..