"Some gum, mate?" The impulse to put the accent on commercials On American television, the commercials one generally sees are in English. Foreign languages are used only, perhaps, to mystify the watcher. The advertiser may not want us to understand what is being said or the advertiser is engendering a feeling of insecurity in a foreign locale. Either way, there is more than likely a purpose to the use of foreign language. Studying the language of media invites many visitors. There are many textual cues in the use of discourse (friendly vs. antagonistic style), word selection (children in a playground vs. executives in a boardroom) and manner (eulogist vs. car salesman). But a linguistic cue that is often understated in media criticism but highly overstated in advertising is the use of accents. If the language is English, does the accent have to be American? More so, what dialect of American English is going to be mirrored in the speech of the actors in the commercial? There are many examples of cues brought forth in the speech of the actors that need not be reiterated in the setting or storyline, if it can be called such. Think of the Pace salsa ads, where pioneers and cowboys sat around a campfire debating the taste of salsas made in San Antonio or those made in New York City. It seems pointless to discuss, but the fact is that the cowboys spoke in a Texas accent to edify the fact that they knew San Antonian salsa. But one must wonder the chronology inherent to these commercials. When was the scene supposed to have taken place? If we're lead to believe that they were pioneers during the late 1800s, for instance, did "our" conceptual Texan accent truly exist yet? The debate is moot, but more important to the discussion is that no accent would have sufficed save for the Texan accent used. The advertisers were specifically targeting that model for the viewers to adhere to. There are countless stereotyped scenarios that advertisers use for this purpose because the American population is intimately familiar with them. The cranky New Yorker, the lazy Georgian, the surfer Californian, the strident New Englander, the dopey Alabaman, and the rugged Texan. The advertiser only has thirty seconds to set the stage, there is no time for character development. In fact, what little research has been done in the field shows that television, film and radio all employ accent stereotypy for character establishment. It's easy and marketable. Harold Schiffman of the University of Pennsylvania states that specifically the New York non-standard English (NYNSE) is used for criminals, low-lifes, sometimes strongly associated with the male gender. If associated with females, it conveys stupidity, ignorance, lack of education, and maybe loose morals: the showgirl, the "gun moll", the cigarette- or hat-check girl. In Disney movies, this accent is often used for "sidekicks" of various sorts, such as Timothy Mouse, the 'sidekick' in Dumbo, Iago (in Aladdin), and Pumbaa in Lion King. Not only are American accents stereotyped but so are the world's languages. The skin cream Roc has employed a voice-over with a French accent. It seems strange to enquire, but isn't stating that the cream possesses dermatological qualities enough? The cream apparently originates in France and France has had a long association with beauty products; Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Cartier and L'Oréal are just a few exemplars. But the advertisement hides no connection with the French beauty image. Why, then, must the French accent be used? And as the author of this article speaks French, I can tell you that the accent was not a well-manufactured one. There is a clear agenda to utilizing the accent for this advertisement. It is a further edification of the association with beauty and dermatological efficacy that France must provoke for the advertisers. And if the advertisers of Roc are compelled to do this, then it must work for the viewer as well. There are many historical examples of the foreign accent in media, and as stated before, little valid research has been found on the matter. Especially during the Cold War, the enemies depicted in American (ie., English-language) films were always in possession of a foreign accent; German and Russian are clearly popular examples. Yes, the characters more than likely came from these countries, but it does corroborate the success of using accents to quickly give characters an already (and continuously) one-dimensional character. Pseudo-foreign accents are often used for the criminals, the aliens and the sinister in films from the early twentieth century onward. In his rejuvenated Star Wars series, specifically I: The Phantom Menace, George Lucas was chided for having used accents for his cartoonish characters, such as the Jewish accent for the swindling shopkeep and most notably a reduced Jamaican for the wholly odious Jar Jar Binks. Most recently, the gum manufacturer Extra advertised a reckless plane jumping stick of gum yammering on for thirty seconds in an Australian accent. The stick of gum is supposed to be demonstrated some renegade characteristic that the ad viewer, imaginably, is then intended to transfer onto chewing Extra gum. When did the Australian accent become associated with bravado? Is it that Australian crocodile hunter Steve Irwin? Or Crocodile Dundee? And more so, how does it aid selling gum? As well, the Orbit gum brand uses a stiflingly saccharine prep school girl with a candied English accent to sell their gum. The English accent has been associated with etiquette and erudition for quite some time, and a Nabokovian pop tart using it associates the gum with such high marks as well. The selection of foreign accents in advertising is by no means arbitrary. Associating the French identity with superiority in beauty products, as in the Roc ad, may not necessarily seem negative. But there are cultural stereotypes, aligned with their respective accents, that do repeatedly endure a negative association. But often foreign accents are used in advertising to establish a quick and ready characterization which may or may not be valid. Most tellingly, they must be working. NB: The term "accent" is hardly preferred, but the word is highly associated with the sound patterns of language and their cultural attachments, and these two connotations are those most indispensable to this article. J. Everett R.