I admit this commercial is a little perplexing...a YouTube commenter came up with this explanation: a man from Portugal emigrates to Brazil, where he marries a Brazilian. They move to the US and they have a son. Thus, a widow with a Brazilian accent, a guy translating into English, and the deceased wearing the national colors of Portugal.
Otherwise, the commercial doesn't make much sense.
What story do you think could explain this weird scenario?
I have two explanations, but both are very... Brazilian:
1) ignorance.
2) jeitinho brasileiro: "oh, come on, you *really* think someone's gonna notice that?"
Posted by: brazinglish | June 21, 2010 at 10:09 AM
Hey Marina, they've been showing this commercial here in the States, so I'm not sure Brazilians were involved other than the translation and the actors. If they were, that's just weird. I have a feeling that the creators (who were probably not Brazilian) really had no idea.
Posted by: Rio Gringa | June 21, 2010 at 08:20 PM
Going by parts (like the butcher says):
- The punch line is ok. "Some fans go a little further with their loyalty, ours just buy another Hyundai."
- They needed to choose an extreme fan scenario and the chosen was 'soccer fans'. Ok.
- Great nations on soccer: Brazil and Portugal. Ok.
- The bg music is any portuguese song. Fado maybe?! Ok.
Now we get to the strange part:
- The family: Portuguese husband, brazilian wife... Ok. As this ad was meant for the north americans, they put an american son. What for?! They didn't need to make that 'world wide family'... LOL. A few subtitles and/or not talking at all would suffice with just the same punch line in the end.
And... Why soccer to the US? It could be done with any other popular sports to them.
It seems to me that the koreans put their final touch in this script.
Posted by: Account Deleted | June 23, 2010 at 08:33 AM
Same old thing: they get no clue of the difference between
portugal, brazil, soccer and football. Note the brazilian scarf
on top of the portuguese uniform. Well, I guess it is the same
for us with like Sweden and Denmark.
Posted by: marce;p | July 02, 2010 at 04:28 AM
Hey! I did see this commercial and think it was very strange, or ignorant at the least. But it could also be the scenario you described. After all it is similar to my story - American-born with a Brazilian mother and Portuguese father. But I'm still leaning towards ignorance. haha
Posted by: Elizabeth A. | July 09, 2010 at 01:10 AM