Some of your ads are a bit too critical (biased). If placed up too often you begin to lose credibility.

I'm confused whether you don't like the ad or don't like my post. I wasn't actually critical of this ad.

Wow, very interesting! I've been to several Caribbean Islands on an American cruise and I always had issues with presenting tourists with the "authentic" lifestyle. I always felt so awkward and kind of guilty being a tourist in these places (even though I know that tourism brings a lot of money to the countries).

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Jamaica
..."tourism industry earns over 50 percent of the country's total foreign exchange earnings and provides about one-fourth of all jobs in Jamaica.[7] Most tourist activity is centered on the island's northern coast, including the communities of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, and Port Antonio, as well as in Negril on the island's western tip."

-snip-

Given the necessity of getting as much money from tourists as they can, it stands to reason that people would seek to know what tourists expect, and strive to meet those expectations. It certainly isn't just in the Caribbean that tourists get a false sense of the real cultures of a particular nation. In order to make their living through tourism, people throughout the world-including in Europe-have to play up to tourists' expectations.

That said, I didn't like the featured video because it suggested that in their real lives, Jamaicans don't display their flag, and don't do anything different in their social public drinking places than what is done in any such setting in the USA (or in Western (meaning "majority White") societies.

I also didn't like that video because it homogenized Caribbean music and dance, by featuring the steel drum (pan), but playing old roots reggae on an outdated boom box, although that probably is the kind of music & dance that tourists-particularly White tourists- expect when they visit any Caribbean nation.

Absolutely hilarious. Especially carrying the old man on the rocker away from the internet to sit on the front porch.

Huh, astute cultural commentary from a beer ad? Whoda thunk it.

For some reason I read the title as "Heinlein on expectations of authentic Jamaica"
Which also could have been funny and sort of *head desk*

"and don’t do anything different in their social public drinking places than what is done in any such setting in the USA (or in Western (meaning “majority White”) societies."

Maybe I'm just super inexperienced here, but I've never been in a bar (in the English speaking countries I've been to) that was routinely quiet enough to play chess or have a good conversation. Wish I had one like that.

As a Scot, let me say that this ad certainly hits home! You can very easily imagine the same scenario being played out here, with whisky and tartan instead of rum and Rasta colours.

It reminds me of one Far Side comic where all the "natives" are quickly trying to hide their TVs as the anthropologists are walking over the hill, toward the village.

May this advertising be inspired by this classic cartoon?: http://pablorpalenzuela.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/gary-larson-1984-far-side-anthropologists.jpg

Love it! I can see how it might still be a little bit generalized, but I do love that it's a different sort of ad than you usually see, and, like the Far Side cartoon, might make someone think for a half second longer than they usually would about the sociological issues the ad could bring up. I'm impressed/perplexed to see this done by a beer company.

Coming from a third world country myself I would say this is a very apt ad, natives may not be as obvious about it but people who do live in areas that have alot of tourist population do adapt certain mores and practices that the tourists expect so as to be able to make money from them.

I thought that the ad was great at showing how race and ethnicity are constructs and performed. Presuming that this ad is shown only in Jamaica, it is also a clever way to position Heineken as a sophisticated product by showing it as a part of modern, contemporary (although maybe "middle class"?) Jamaica as opposed to a "backward" stereotype.

As for the flag, I can't believe that it's become such an issue in this thread. From a practical point, the flag is used to cover up a sign of modernity (i.e. The television). It fits in with the other ways modern Jamaica is hidden which to my count were getting to man off the computer to stick him out on the porch and having the chickens come in through the bottom of the wall. It's all part of an act to impress the tourists looking for the simple life from simple people.

Also, why do people have to have their flag on display everywhere to be considered patriotic? Maybe it reflects a trait from the users of this American website, but I get the feeling that most other countries in the Anglosphere at least feel far less need and interest to show and display their flag as much as possible and place much less store in conspicuous flag waving as a sign of patriotism. Indeed, in Australia, where I'm from, up until very recently, people who had the Australian flag on a flagpole at their homes would be considered by many as over zealous weirdos and try hards who needed to chill out a bit. It was certainly seen as a very American (and therefore not Australian) type of thing to do and not getting too invested in the flag along with not being able to sing along with the national anthem were considered great traits of a proud but quiet and understated Australian patriotism in opposition to loud, brash and overbearing American patriotism. Maybe, given that the accents of the tourists sounded rather American, the ad is also playing into this difference in how patriotism is performed between the two countries.

Just as an aside. I work at a wine store and we have a number of regular customers from Jamaica, most of the time they buy Heineken. It's actually interesting to see which cultural groups purchase what kind of alcohol as a general rule :D

I was happy to finally see a commercial that calls attention, and perhaps mocks, Westerners' stupid perceptions and expectations about people from non-Western lands.

Then I read the comments on YouTube and even on here and most people are focusing on how clever, or even manipulative, Jamaicans are. Goddamnit.

Very late to the party, obviously.

I wasn't sure what to expect (and was actually a bit nervous about watching the commercial), but this was actually kind of amusing. My husband is from Jamaica and make no mistake: anyone involved in the tourism industry is well aware of the perceptions about Jamaica and what is "expected" of them by visitors. Like everywhere, Jamaican businesspeople capitalize on what is going to be most easily sold and to the audience best able to afford it, to a certain extent. For practical reasons, businesses need to seem welcoming to tourists and one way to do that is to give them what makes them feel comfortable, even if it does present a kind of superficial image. 

Unfortunately that can lead to a situation where neither the visitor nor the visited is perceived as a real person, not terribly different in many ways from one another, but as a sort of cartoon stereotype. Obviously all that is something beyond the scope of this commercial.

Tourism is Jamaica's largest industry and there are probably very few people who haven't had some exposure to tourists. People working in that industry are given very clear messages about the image they are supposed to convey (although in many cases it's more about not mingling too much with tourists or seeming improper). And, as in the commercial, tourists, often motivated by discomfort or guilt, respond in ways that help perpetuate the situation.

My husband always laments the prevalence of Bob Marley and jerk chicken stands in the tourist areas, while fully sympathetic to the decision to place them front and center.