I don't talk to my parents about commercials anymore because they mute them or skip them with PVR, so I'll just blog about them instead. My parents hate commercials, but I find a lot of them amusing. One of my favourite commercials is for Multigrain Cheerios that features a man asking his wife why she's eating multigrain Cheerios. He asks if she's trying to watch her weight which, of course, creates some mild animosity during the 30 second tv spot. The commercial ends with the exchange

"What else does the box say?"
"The box says 'Shut up, Steve.'"

If you're like me, you saw this commercial in its original form with two British actors playing the couple. It was perfect, the couple were adorable and the wife's dry, stoic reaction was so hilarious and, in the end, the couple did not seem sincerely mad at each other.

Some time later, I ended up seeing the same commercial, or so I thought! Instead of my lovable limeys bickering over breakfast, I listened in shock to two American voices coming out of their mouths. That was the only difference save for an apparent photoshop of an American version of the Cheerios box. Now, I ask those of you who have seen this commercial, WHY?!

With the two American voices the dialogue seems rushed and the wife looks like a total...um...unlikeable lady. And with such little difference in the two versions, one wonders why they bothered to dub it at all? I wonder if they liked the dialogue but thought it wouldn't be as accepted in America because of the British actors. Rather than shoot their own version, they saved money and just had it dubbed.

What is also strange is that both commercials seem to be running at the same time. I believe that I saw the British version on a Canadian channel and the Americanized version on FOX. So are American viewers so xenophobic that they wouldn't buy Cheerios from the Brits? Or were the advertisers just too lazy to shoot their own version?

You be the judge. Enjoy the American version and what I can find of the UK version.






Photo via Jamie McKerral on Flickr

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