SalesGenie’s Super Bowl ads are super offensive to Indian and Chinese workers

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I admit it: I’m so not interested in American football that I could barely be bothered to glance up for the commercials. So I missed these live. But my Asian colleagues in journalism are fuming today about two spots from the same company, SalesGenie.com. One involves an Indian salesman, Ramesh, who explains in a thick accent to an impatient boss that he has seven children. Watch and judge for yourself.

SalesGenie Superbowl Commercial: Boss Threatens to Fire Salesman

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The other involves a pair of heavily accented pandas working at Ling Ling’s Bamboo Furniture Shack:

Sales Genie Super Bowl Commercial

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Rob Pegoraro of WashingtonPost.com writes,

ugh, won’t somebody please tell this company that it’s destroying whatever reputation it might have with these witless spots?

My colleague Jim Poniewozik (btw, check out his grades on a bunch of ads here) gives it an F:

Salesgenie.com wants to give you 100 free sales leads — and all you have to do in return is subject yourself to some mild racial stereotyping! A put-upon sales rep named “Ramesh,” with seven kids and the thickest Indian accent this side of the Kwik-E-Mart, is saved from certain termination by the leads. Maybe it’s actually a subtle political commentary on outsourcing.

But as Portfolio.com’s Jeff Bercovici notes,

By the way, SalesGenie CEO Vin Gupta writes the company’s ads himself, and claims to take pride in making them as bad as possible. I guess by writing about them, I’m vindicating his “strategy.” Sigh.

Your thoughts…?