Top 10 Cringiest Foreign TV Commercials

WatchMojo

Get ready for some serious secondhand embarrassment! Join us as we count down our picks for the most awkward, offensive, and just plain bizarre TV advertisements from around the globe. From racist washing machine ads to celebrities behaving strangely in Japanese commercials, these advertisements crossed cultural lines in all the wrong ways.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most awkward, offensive,

00:08and just plain bizarre TV ads from other countries.

00:15Number 10. Leo in an Italian Meadow. This commercial seems like it's trying way too

00:20hard to be deep. We see Leonardo DiCaprio relaxing in a beautiful meadow alongside an

00:25impressive variety of bugs. The lighting is soft, the music is serene, even the praying mantis looks

00:31chill. Suddenly, Leo is interrupted by an email on his Palm Pilot. He checks the message, then tosses

00:37the device aside, annoyed. For those who don't speak Italian, the ending text reads,

00:42Technology is important, but so is the rest. Weirdly, this is a commercial for a telecom

00:47company. That makes it extra strange that they're implying that having good mobile service will

00:52irritate customers when they're communing with nature. Number 9. Ben Stiller giving less than

00:57100%. It's pretty common for American celebrities to shoot commercials for overseas markets,

01:02where most of their fans at home will never see them. And you can hardly blame them for putting

01:12in less than their best effort at these gigs. That's certainly the case with Ben Stiller in

01:16this Japanese commercial for a canned cocktail brand. Everything in this ad is high energy and

01:22frenetic, from the editing to the music to the very obviously dubbed voice. Except Stiller, he's just

01:28not on the same wavelength as everyone around him. The Ben Stiller we know always gives 110% in his

01:33acting roles, which is why it's so weird to see him phoning it in here. Number 8. Japan's Wild West.

01:40We never thought we'd say this, but Ben Stiller could take a lesson from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

01:46These Japanese energy drink commercials might be incredibly bizarre, but the action hero is

01:52certainly giving it his all. The first features a liquid Schwarzenegger popping out of a woman's head

01:57and screaming into the camera, and it's set in the Old West for some reason.

02:05In the second, the two are strapped to floating bees, a reference to the drink's name, Alina Min V,

02:11until they link up and gain some kind of superpower? We have to assume it makes at least a

02:16little more sense if you know what they're saying, but at least Schwarzenegger gets to say

02:19his own lines. Number 7. Man turns into toothpaste. You know those commercials that are weird just

02:25for the sake of being weird? There's plenty of them on American TV, and apparently, they're

02:30a thing in Thailand, too.

02:35In this surreal ad, a man tries to do a good deed, but a little girl's racist mother snatches

02:40her daughter away before he can complete it. He goes home, dejected, and we see that this

02:45has happened before. It seems like Thai kids just can't hold on to their balloons. Then, the man lays

02:54down on his bed, which is a toothbrush, and turns into toothpaste.

02:58In case you're wondering why it's brown, it's because it's an herbal brand. We're wondering how the

03:05marketers possibly came up with this idea.

03:07Number 6. Volkswagen's Major Misfire. There's a lot to unpack here. Volkswagen was founded by Nazis,

03:14so it's on a short leash when it comes to PR failures. Although this is a German ad, it's set in Argentina,

03:20which became a haven for Nazi war criminals after World War II. A white woman's hand flicks a dark-skinned

03:25man away from VW Golf. It pushes him into a restaurant called Petit Kolen, which translates

03:31to Little Colonist. When the words Der Neue Golf fade in, the first letters that appear spell out a

03:37German slur for black people. One of these things alone wouldn't necessarily be suspicious, but put

03:42together, it's hard to imagine Volkswagen didn't see the problem. The company claimed audiences just

03:47misunderstood the ad. Number 5. Nicolas Cage for Senkyo. Nick Cage and weird Japanese

03:53commercials go together like peanut butter and jelly. That's probably why he made five of them.

04:07Here, he's promoting Senkyo, a company that manufactures super popular pachinko machines,

04:12which is sort of a cross between pinball and a slot machine. There's no through line across this ad

04:17series. He's singing a song, talking to the media, driving through the desert, where, of course,

04:22he runs into aliens who look like pachinko balls.

04:24But in each of them, he's 100% Nicolas Cage. And you might have noticed that his voice isn't dubbed

04:31into Japanese. We have to assume that's because there's no other actor in the world that could handle the

04:36pressure of playing Nick Cage. Number 4. Literal Whitewashing. File this one under...

04:48What were they thinking? In this Chinese detergent ad, a woman is doing laundry when her black boyfriend

04:53comes in with paint on his face. She shoves a soap pod into his mouth and forces him into the washing machine.

05:01And when he emerges, he has miraculously become a light-skinned Chinese man.

05:08There's an ugly history of ads in the US and probably other countries that imply that dark skin is dirty

05:15and can be washed clean with soap. We can't really fault Chinese marketers for not knowing about that.

05:20However, the fact that the pale Asian man is clearly framed as an improvement over the dark-skinned boyfriend

05:25is super racist. The official version released by the cosmetics company has since been removed,

05:31but copies continue circulating online of what some have called, quote,

05:36the most racist ad in the world.

05:38Number 3. The Kalbi Dog. These commercials are weird, but they're also kind of hilarious.

05:44And you have to admit, that jingle is catchy. This creepy dog man tries all kinds of tricks to cheer up these depressed kids,

05:50but nothing works, until he gets them Kalbi snacks. The brand makes crispy fries, potato chips, and other similar products.

05:57In the last commercial, the tables are turned. The little boy is broken-hearted, but he doesn't need chips.

06:03He feels better after talking to a new girl. Now, the dog man needs Kalbi chips to cheer up.

06:08The new flavor they're advertising is consomme punch, though many English-speaking internet commentators

06:13have misinterpreted Ponchi as being the dog's name. Believe it or not, you still haven't seen the last of Japan on our list.

06:20Number 2. Banana Man. You wouldn't think that having bananas for body parts would be a good thing, but this guy is clearly winning at life.

06:28Kids love him, women want him, he's crushing it at work, and he can even fly, sort of.

06:33The series starts with his origin story, where he sprouts bananas from his head while eating one in a restaurant.

06:38Then, he gallivants around town, spreading joy and bananas everywhere he goes.

06:43Somehow, watching him shoot bananas out of his nose doesn't make us crave them, but that tiny banana mustache is pretty snazzy.

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07:05Number 1. Chinese Food.

07:08This German commercial from 1988 is somehow an even more unhinged version of the Chinese laundry detergent ad.

07:14This family sits down to enjoy some delicious prepackaged Chinese food from the brand MaggiFix.

07:20And it tastes so authentic that they TURN Chinese, instead of freaking out.

07:25Like the banana man? They just roll with it. In fact, they actually seem delighted.

07:29I don't think we need to point out why this is so problematic.

07:32It doesn't help that the man is sporting an especially stereotypical haircut and glasses.

07:37The microscopic cookbook that the spokesperson plugs at the end is the perfect surreal finishing touch.

07:42Which of these foreign commercials did you think was too weird to be real?

07:45Let us know in the comments below.

07:47Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday comes again.

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