Word: jameses
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A doppelgänger of Steve Carell's 40-year-old virgin with glasses, Mr. James is a character invented by Japanese advertising behemoth Dentsu and McDonald's Japan for its new burger line - the "Nippon All Stars" - campaign. The purpose of the campaign, running Aug. 10 to Nov. 5...
But elsewhere, Mr. James, dressed in his buttoned-up red polo shirt, tie and khakis, is seen as playing to Japan's xenophobic tendencies. Annoyed expats have described the character as "white, dorky" and speaking "mangled Japanese." The chair of the Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens' Association of Japan, Arudo...
On his blog, Mr. James posts travel plans - to places like Kyushu, where he visits McDonald's restaurants - and ruminates about his favorite burgers. He bungles his attempts at written Japanese and mispronounces words with a staccato-like butchering of the language. One online video shows him talking to himself...
McDonald's Japan spokesman Junichi Kawaminami says there is no official response to criticism of the Mr. James campaign. He does, however, explain the story of the character, which appears in the first commercial. "Mr. James' daughter was determined to go to Japan and study, and so he looked at...
Some of the Mr. James criticism, however, seems a little thin. One comment on Facebook says that because Mr. James wears the same clothes every day in August, it might suggest that foreigners are "unclean." If we're going to look at the clothing choices of fast-food icons, it...