Summertime Blues~

Summer in Asia has translated to a lot of different things, one of which is large, flying, wall-climbing, dollar-coin-sized cockroaches. The one to the left (in the sink) was found by my roommate as he was standing and using the bathroom... imagine "doing your business" and looking up to see an enormous roach on the wall less than 2 feet away from you. @_@


The one below is put next to a Taiwanese coin that is as large as a quarter.

>bleack!<

Ahhh... the sad thing is that I'm actually getting used to it~

Is it hot in here?

The image to the right is another somewhat shocking picture I took in my quest to document interesting/quirky (and yes, shocking) things in Taipei. You may wonder what is so shocking about this subway sign compared to the sign posted in a another, earlier post here.

Well, you'd be right to wonder. The image to the left is not at all shocking, actually. It is a heater company that has advertised in Taiwan for some time, selling German heaters in Taiwan. It's quite a nice product, and very practical - with a little rack on top socks and... "unmentionables".

The reason I posted this picture above is to show an improvement in their marketing campaign, actually, when compared to their earlier attempt, listed below..

When I asked a close friend of mine about this new ad to the left, she said that it wasn't offensive or sensitive in the least, and in fact quite effective because it helped customers remember that "it was from Germany"; and besides, "...it wasn't like a lot of Jewish people live in Taiwan."

Now then, this underlines one of the key issues that I've seen in Taiwan, and that I guess exists in much of Asia.

To advertise with this sort of image is to be in ignorance of one of the major villains of our time. To put the villain on a German product is an insult to both Jews and Germans, and even to me (neither) simply because as a citizen on this planet earth, I am loathe to see this.

I wonder if the situation would be different if the furnace was sold in the US (pick your state) from Taiwan, and the man was a Japanese soldier with a Taiwanese head in his hands (Japan ruled Taiwan for sometime). Trust me, there would be protests; as their should be.

I do want to state that the very interesting thing about this advertisement is not that it was done in viciousness towards anyone, many Taiwanese tend to be very open and kind to foreigners. But the fact that most Taiwanese simply don't see anything wrong with it at all makes this pretty bad.

Pepsi does some serious localization in it's marketing~

While sitting outside of the Library a while back, taking a rest and enjoying a lull in the incredibly hot and humid weather, I noticed that the labeling on my Pepsi bottle was... well... certainly nothing I've ever seen in NYC.

I'm trying to think of some of my friends or perhaps a policeman in Manhattan... or better yet, perhaps my old boss (worked on a farm when I was much younger) sitting back and clutching a cold bottle with this fine young... eh... "pretty" boy on the side, staring back at him. :D