Has anyone seen that multi-grain Cheerios commercial..?

[loitering]

There's a Cheerios commercial I see all the time with a British couple talking about the product. The man asks if she's dieting because the box says "low in fat". It's cute (for a commercial) and I do love me some British accents.

Then the other day, I saw the commercial again. Except it's dubbed with American accents! I did some googling and only found one reference to it online, but it was assumed that the British commercial was played in Canada and the American, in the US.

Has anyone else seen it? I'm curious to find out if anyone who has only seen the US version thought something was off about the commercial.

[patronia]

I know here in Australia we get American/UK ads and get Australian voices dubbed over the top, it's annoying because the actual persons mouth is going faster than the Australian voice.

[Canadianmommax3]

i've seen it, but only with british accents,

[NaomiMcC]

Originally Posted by Canadianmommax3

i've seen it, but only with british accents,

ditto.

[mama_ani]

I saw it the other day with the dubbed voices.

It is so irritating!!

Why did they change it???

[UnschoolnMa]

I saw it for the first time tonight and the couple have no British accent that I could hear. Maybe I need to see it again though because Dd and I were too busy discussing the stereotypical "woman assumes man thinks she's fat" slant the commerical was using to really pay attention.

[Hatteras Gal]

I've seen it (US) and there was no British accent.

[Mom2J]

:

Originally Posted by Hatteras Gal

I've seen it (US) and there was no British accent.

[loitering]

Originally Posted by Hatteras Gal

I've seen it (US) and there was no British accent.

Did you notice anything weird about it, or did it seem normal? I don't think the voices suited the actors at all.

[neverdoingitagain]

I've seen the commercial. It annoys me. And no, they haven't dubbed the accents. If that commercial could get more annoying, that would do it.

[rockycrop]

I only saw the dubbed version and I noticed it seemed "off" and weird.

Now I know why!

It made me think of some kind of acne treatment commercial I've seen where an older brother is telling his younger brother the values of washing his face. Except it's totally dubbed and I think it was in another language to begin with because they only show small snippets (like less than a second) of the brothers talking before cutting away. Very bizarre.

Does it really save companies that much money to use foreign commercials?

[jbrock]

Living in Canada, close to the US border, we receive both Canadian and US networks on television. This Cheerios ad isn't the first time I've seen a TV ad that had different versions dependent on which country it was run in.

So, being the curious one that I am, I emailed General Mills to find out the reason. They replied, but didn't explain why the voice-overs, so I'm going to ask them in my reply. Here is the original email response they sent:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Corporate.Response@genmills.com [mailto:Corporate.Response@genmills.com]
Sent: January 16, 2008 8:42 AM
To: jbrock
Subject: General Mills Web 2008/01/15-0090 IMC


Dear Mr. JBrock:

Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry.

This ad was originally produced and ran in the UK with one of our global brands. General Mills Canada took the ad, changed the product to Multigrain Cheerios but left the voiceover. General Mills US then took the Canadian spot, changed the package to the US Multigrain Cheerios and synched over the voices.
So no reason other than we're repurposing an existing ad.

We hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if we can help you again.

Sincerely,

Maria Chase
Consumer Services

>Original Message From: norshore@shaw.ca
>
>Originated by Consumer RE: TV AD with couple - with British accents My question... Why did you change a perfectly good commercial with two actors with British accents bantering back and forth to a "dubbed" version with North American accents? It was much better before. And NO, we're not British, we're Canadian. Thanks,

[adelemarie]

I have seen this commercial many times.... then just this past week I noticed something different. The voices sounded different. I thought maybe I was imagining it, so I googled it, and came up with quite a few hits, other people noticed it too, so I guess I wasnt imagining i, thats a relief.... thought I was loosing it.
I live in Canada and was used to the British accents, then they changed to "American".
Why did they do that? The voices dont match the people in the ad... dont you think?
Do you think they might have done it as a trick to keep our attention? Just a thought, you know how sneaky the ad industry can be.

[samstress]

thank you so much for this thread. i have seen this commercial many times (with american accents) and every time i think there is something just not right about it. i was thinking maybe it was dubbed into english from some other language, but when i looked at their mouths it matched what they were saying. the commercial always gave me a funny feeling, now i know. thanks for clearing it up.

[emmasmommy]

I've seen the commericial with both accents too. I think it's a funny commercial, but the American accented voice over just doesn't sound right, and it still drives me nuts every time I hear it! The British guy had a great voice and the perfect tone in what he's saying and really realizing he's digging himself further into the ground, the American guys' voice just isn't the same!

[meme89]

I'v seen the commercial not just with the american accent but with two different voices! they changed it again! why? who knows! for some reason I always knew it was a british commercial, those two people didnt look american at all, plus, it was so annoying how they also changed the box! did you notice that? why!!!!!

[Rach]

Originally Posted by meme89

plus, it was so annoying how they also changed the box! did you notice that? why!!!!!

That box hurts my eyes! I couldn't figure out why they digitally added the box design on the commercial, but now I know. Craziness.

[LisainCalifornia]

This is so strange! I have seen the commercial many times (American accent) and it also really bugged me, but I couldn't figure out why. Besides their inane conversation about "the box" and the whole weight loss angle, something just seemed off to me about it. Now I know why!

[loitering]

I just noticed that this thread was bumped up. It's funny that so many of you have noticed something off!

[loitering]

Here's the American version of the commercial on Youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-IZ9CL4phPk