The other night, I saw for the first time ever a commercial for Panda Express. You’ve probably seen a Panda Express before at your local mall food court; if I’m hungry and at the mall and in the mood for fast greasy Chinese food, Panda Express is there to serve its purpose. So I was kind of shocked to see a commercial for the restaurant — I mean, I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there. But what got me were the two UGLY talking pandas, Eddie and Tom-Tom, with a “gong” at the end of the commercial as the tag line “Experience Pandamonium” is shown along with the Panda Express logo.
Since the Panda Express is the name of the restaurant, it’s not a huge surprise that the restaurant uses talking pandas to pitch itself. But there’s also been another commercial that has been bothering me that’s been airing for a while — Wanchai Ferry’s “restaurant quality Chinese in your grocer’s freezer” commercial pitching their orange chicken – with, you guessed it, another UGLY talking panda.
What’s with the ugly talking pandas pitching Chinese food? I wonder how much money it would cost to make a decent looking panda suit or something in CGI? Enough of the ugly talking pandas! Jennifer 8. Lee, do something!
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5 Comments to “Panda Express: Ugly Talking Pandas Pitching Chinese Food”
Tien V Nguyen wrote:
Not surprising they'd have fake pandas selling fake Chinese food.
Posted on 19-Oct-09 at 10:28 am | Permalink
Terry_Aki wrote:
Why do you hate the poor pandas so much??
Makes me sad…
On a related note… I AM quite sick of that “Sumo” sushi place… And not just their choice of restaurant “mascot.”
I mean… THAT is some tremendously bad food…
On 2nd thought… Maybe you're right…
There really is something wrong here…
Any possibility you could get the “8Asians” staff together and do some reviews of the absolute WORST in “Americanized Asian food?”
I mean… try some stuff that's REALLY REALLY bad…
You know… like the places your white friends tell you is the “best Asian food” they've ever had…
Posted on 19-Oct-09 at 3:57 pm | Permalink
johnklin wrote:
That's not a bad idea. Living in the Bay Area, there aren't too many bad Americanized Chinese restaurants.
Personally, I don't understand why PF Changs is popular.
Posted on 19-Oct-09 at 4:07 pm | Permalink
bobbodangles wrote:
It's because, those pandas were done by 'white people'
Should've hired the 15 year old asian girls.. don't they know by now?
Posted on 19-Oct-09 at 5:39 pm | Permalink
Terry_Aki wrote:
Here in Orange County… it seems like we have a lot of… I don't know what you call that… “Asian fusion” restaurants?
But indeed, I think it might make for some interesting (possibly hilarious) articles by your staff… I do hope you guys try that out some time.
Although… I probably shouldn't find it so amusing… I LOVE “Japanese spaghetti” houses, and I imagine Italian-Americans probably roll their eyes every time they pass by.
Posted on 19-Oct-09 at 10:03 pm | Permalink
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