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Friday, February 4, 2011

Discover's veiled use of xenophobia in "Peggy" commercial

As many of us have already seen, Discover Credit Card produced a commercial about a customer service representative named "Peggy" played by a white male. In all honesty, the first time I watched this commercial, I couldn't help but laugh at the funny accent. But, after I watched the commercial a few more times, I started to think about the implications of the use of the accent of "Peggy" at a call center. The more I thought about this commercial, the more I realized Discover's use of Americans' mistrust of Outsourced call-center jobs. This commercial didn't only portray comedy. It had a deeper purpose. It asked people to believe that foreigners are second class, when it comes to workplace qualifications. It asked people to believe that foreigners of outsourced jobs didn't do their job with any degree of care. It asked people to believe that foreigners do not have "Amercan" names, if there is such a thing.

Now, I'm not one of those "must be politically correct" types by any means. I enjoy comedy that makes fun of all races and peoples, but I only enjoy it under that very context: "comedy". When your main purpose is using people's mistrust of foreigners to make money, I detest it very much. This commercial needs to be taken down by Discover ASAP.

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