Right. And they’re not trying to portray foreigners as beer drinking English teachers who hang out in pubs and steal all the pretty Taiwanese women.[/quote]
because everybody knows that already[/quote]
Of course they do. It’s on TV.
Forumosa’s Taiwan Beer internet commercial has gotten a lot of buzz, it seems. The powers-that-be are now seriously talking about making a TV commercial! 
Click here for some Taiwan blog-buzz on the commercial…
[quote=“Maoman”]A couple of months ago, some of my wife’s colleagues from the advertising/production company where she used to work approached her with the idea of shooting a commercial about foreigners who live and work in Taiwan, AND drink Taiwan beer. I qualified. 
Once they found out about Forumosa, they decided to make that the theme of the commerical. Anyway, it’s finally ready. It’s a two minute web commerical, but depending on “consumer response” they might make it into a TV commercial. I’m not holding my breath, though. The commerical can be found on the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Monopoly website, 3rd film from the top, or you can get to it directly by clicking here.
The commercial is a little cheezy, I’m not entirely happy with my Mandarin, the script was written for me, not by me, they failed in their promise to make me look “slimming” 
, and the production is a little sketchy in places, but whatever. There are a few other Forumosans in the commercial - can you spot them? The foreigners filmed in my living room are newbie lurkers, so I doubt anyone would know them yet…
Anyway, enjoy![/quote]
the links don’t work.
Is there another way to see the video?
Right. And they’re not trying to portray foreigners as beer drinking English teachers who hang out in pubs and steal all the pretty Taiwanese women.[/quote]
because everybody knows that already[/quote]
Four months in here, and i still havent gotten anywhere near a pub… 
[quote=“Cobra_Commander”]the links don’t work.
Is there another way to see the video?[/quote]
This works for me:
Just watched it tonight – fun!
[quote=“Dragonbones”][quote=“Cobra_Commander”]the links don’t work.
Is there another way to see the video?[/quote]
This works for me:
Just watched it tonight – fun![/quote]
I watched it, thanks.
Seemed like one of those “Welcome to Taiwan” tourist videos I saw on the airplane before I landed more than it did a beer commercial (I mean, I’ve never had acab driver speak English to me.) Not bad though, I’d be interested to ee the TV version.
By the way, ain’t it funny how in the West sex sells beer and here it’s food. Haha, may fav is the Kirin beer guy “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!”
This is the commercial I was talking about in the Events forum! It was playing in between acts on the big screens at the Formoz 2006 festival last night and I wondered what it was.
I think the one they played on the big screen was a shorter version, without the Taiwan Beer focus. I actually thought it was an ad just for Forumosa, to attract new members to the site… I think it does a pretty good job of portraying the site as an information resource, with all those screenshots, and how, through it, you can get to know Taiwan. So, nice work! 
Re: Taiwan beer commercial
First, the whole feel of the thing is fairly gay (as in “batting for the other team” gay). Sure, at the end we have these photos saying, “I married a local, I’m not a homo and yes, I get the added credibility that marrying a local buys me,” but overall it gives me the feel that Taiwan Beer is for girlymen.
I also felt a little uncomfortable with the “we are married” angle. More of the “If you make an honest woman of a local, you are elevated in status and are ‘respectable.’” I find this contemptible bullshit, but I assume that the producers wanted this to resonate with the product – “See? He may be a lowly English teacher, but he married one of us, so he can be taken seriously.”
I spent 20 years in Taiwan and never married into the “family.” I regret and resent the producers’ idea – made on purpose or otherwise – of foreigner legitimacy as a member of local society as being linked, in any way, to having married a Taiwanese.
But of course you wouldn’t want a commercial with foreigners from one of the backpacker hostels in Taipei quaffing Taiwan beer in the common room…cut to someone using the empty can as a pipe to smoke some dope…cut to conversation about what babe is shagging in the next room with which dude after a night at Roxy 99…cut to a fight outside a nightclub with someone getting clobbered over the skull with a brown bottle…cut. “Taiwan Beer – Get faced on the cheap!”
Maoman comes off as something of a happy-go-lucky dufus, nothing serious, nothing hard. However, everything goes well until we get the snippet of him in the classroom – BANG! The coin drops and you can almost see the locals nodding their heads about those “outsiders,” aka waigworen.
Taiwan person sees foreigner. First thought, “Must be an English teacher.” And here we see this reinforced in a commercial showing “average foreigners.”
And my hat’s off to the guy, clearly an English teacher, who says that Taiwan beer is “very great.” Uh, okay….
I also question the honesty of the whole thing. Yeah, right…Maoman and his buds like to go to a pub and order Taiwan Beer? The only reason anyone buys Taiwan Beer is because there is no other choice or, like the backpacking English-teaching cowboys, it’s cheap.
Hey, Alleycat, let’s get some of that fine award-winning brew on tap! All of the foreigners love it! It’s VERY GREAT! Hahahaha! (I hear it’s the favorite beer of Ernie Els….)
The spot did have nice production values. I liked the parts where Maoman was looking out the window of the cab like in the movie Lost in Translation – a reference to the fact that no matter what, a foreigner will always be at sea in the mysterious world of the Taiwanese.
Well, I look forward to Tigerman selling his soul for a few coins and doing a commercial extolling the virtues – of which I assume there are many – of Leo beer….
Note: Interesting that the taxi driver says: “Where are you going to?” in English (albeit incorrectly) then Maoman answers in Chinglish: “We are to Anhu lu, er duan….” We are to? This coming from an English teacher? Sort of the “Me Tarzan, you Jane” style of speaking, yes? And is this a plug for the city’s amazingly successful campaign to educate taxi drivers in basic English? Like, “It’s very great,” for example?
Best wishes from sunny Samui.
WR
(In all fairness to Maoman, after he saw the thing, he probably thought, “Shiza! Did I say that? Can we do some post production on that?”)
[Edited here to mention that my avatar is deceased…RIP little black widow.]
Excellent. 
What a comeback.
I will not make a “comeback” unless my avatar is released from Guantanamaoman and it is given back its Koran.
Hey Wolf, how’s life on the beach, ya bastard. I found a copy of your avatar and it’s back in place.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that! :yay:
Yeah, it’s all about the stereotypes. Being married isn’t normally a beer commercial stereotype, UNLESS it’s of a foreigner with a Taiwanese girl, and then they damn well better be married or every Taike viewer will be thinking, “Damn foreigners, messing around with our women.” It’s not an exactly enlightened mindset we’re dealing with in Taiwan, though, is it?
Well, you can’t fault the company for this. I AM a happy-go-lucky dufus (I thought it was doofus), and I AM an English teacher. The thing is, Taiwan Beer was interested in showing the life of a “real” westerner making a life for himself in Taiwan. To that end they came to my school, followed me around in a night market, filmed me in my own home and showed up at a Forumosa Happy Hour. It IS a cliche, but dammit man - look at the demographics of “western” foreigners in Taiwan. There’s a hell of a lot of English teachers and editors married to local lasses. Sure, it’s reinforcing a stereotype, but it’s not exactly a false stereotype.
Actually, I really like Taiwan draft beer - the stuff in the green bottles. It was even the beer V and I served at our wedding banquet. (Of course the alternatives the restaurant provided were Miller and Budweiser, so not much of a contest.)
You misheard. I said “Women yao qu Anhe Lu, er duan”, not “We are to Anhu lu, er duan….”. I did ask why the taxi driver was speaking English (quite uncommon), and why they couldn’t at least undangle his preposition, but the production team said it was better this way, and I was tired and cranky and just wanted to go home.
It was a fairly fly-by-night production, and it could have been a lot better. On the other hand, I’m glad Forumosa got a little more publicity. The interesting thing is that Taiwan Beer loved the commercial. So much so that they want to do an abbreviated (30 second) version of the Forumosa/Taiwan Beer commercial for television. I’ll keep you all posted on that.
I went back and listened with my US$3,000 Taiwan-made Happy-Lucky headphones and all I could hear was “I buried Paul.”
Life on the beach is as one would expect. Tattoos here are, seemingly, a must. Last night at lady Thai boxing I saw a girl with, and I kid you not, tattooed on her back in large letters, “Want to fukk you.” (spelled correctly, mind you)
The scenery is fine and I’d post a photo, but I don’t have a Web site.
Speaking of beer, the more I drink Singha the more I think it isn’t really very good compared to Heineken or Tiger. Chang, I have to say, tastes altogether foul. It has a sort of solvent aftertaste, but I guess the silver lining is the fact that it has that delicate undertone flavor of pesticide.