Question for our Aussie friends
 

In the US, it seems many companies like to have pitchmen with Australian accents in their television ads. I don't know why exactly, but I assume it helps their sales. It makes me wonder if the reverse is true - do you have people with American accents doing ads on your TV? :)

Well, I'm not a huge TV watcher but in general I'd have to say no. Not that I've noticed anyway. I guess if there was a predominance of ads with unusual accents, I would probably notice???

There are of course some ads which feature famous people, the accents might be American, Italian, English etc to enhance the product. Only last night I saw a Nescafe ad which has George Clooney talking. Can't think of any others though.

I wonder if in America, its because its like England in that dependant on different localities, accents are harder to understand, In England, the way people speak in London is SO different to for example, Wales or Cornwall or Yorkshire. I remember asking a couple of girls for directions in Yorkshire and we simply could not understand what they were telling us. Same in America I'm sure. Can a person from Oregon grasp every word someone from Louisiana might say??

Using a "neutral" accent in a TV ad might be the reason so that its clearly understood everywhere. I don't know???

Ian :ausflag::ausflag::ausflag:

I would say most if not all ads for locally made Aussie products use Aussie speaking persons, there are some international brands like Heybuck mentioned who use famous celebrities,
I've noticed lots of betting app ads that yanks are flogging are on over here recently.

Americans love Aussie accents.

Pleasant and easy to understand.

Spent 20+ years in the US and I hung on to my NZ accent as much as I could. I was involved in software pre-sales and our whole team was convinced that we sometimes won business because of it.

In a sea of competitors I think it was just a differentiating factor that helped people remember our team and product from all of the others.

I work for Aussies and the original sales team, three guys from AU closed many deals, with the accent being a component of their success. These guys were pretty bold as well, so the accent made up for some arrogant confidence in the product. Blue-collar environment, mostly truck dealerships in those days.

Aussie ads are full of Americans and their ads, you will go for years without seeing more than one or two African Americans walking the streets, but they seem to appear in every ad, even those produced locally, along with every other ethnic group in the same family. Often to do with tech rubbish.

Thanks for the replies, they satisfy my curiosity.

American people on TV (like newscasters) tend to have a very neutral accent, no matter what part of the country the TV station is in. I suppose they teach them that in journalism school.

I have noticed the accent in broadcasting as well. We joke in our home whenever we hear that, We say 'hes speaking with an English accent, so it must be important', LOL.

My brother has a few close friends in Europe. Mom was at his house when the phone rang. She answered, could not understand the caller, told my brother one of his foreign friends were on the phone. When he hung up she asked what language they were speaking. The reply was English, they were from England!

I like the Aus. accent but am more intrigued by the meat pie at this point.

Is there any other kind of pie?!

I had to learn that "aid een" was a number and "deckles" were stickers...

On a slightly different topic, there's a lot of good automotive YouTube content from Australia - Mighty Car Mods, Benny's Custom Works, The Skid Factory, Barrel Brothers, Home Built by Jeff to name just a few. Check them out.

I knew a guy from Australia at Fort Sam Houston that would come into the clinic and he used words like duadober (might be spelled wrong) which seems to mean this thing here. He also liked to use a word that referred to a female body part all the time. Why are moving my leg like that ya c*** that hurt lol. Not to be stereotypical but anytime I hear a Australian accent I want to drink a Fosters. Do Aussies even like fosters

NO, No We Don't!::gag:

Did someone mention deck-uls? For as long as I can remember I've been comfortably aware that (right or wrong) our Southern neighbors pronounce that as dee-kal. It's a point of contention for some Canucks, I've never understood why.

There's a reason we export that rubbish, it's hard to find here. Perhaps it suits the watered-down palette of American beers.
That brings up another question. Since when did a burnout become a skid. It's the complete opposite. As a kid I'd do a skid on my push bike, leave a long mark down the path. Now the facebook crowd call them skid cars, yet, I'm seeing the wheels spinning...
I guess de-cals are like de-fence.