Conimex Beijing ad
Nooooooo, you can't be serious!!!! I thought, wachting the newest tv-ad for the well-known brand of Conimex (Unilever), a huge producer of Asian convenience foods in the Netherlands. This brand has been around locally since the 1950s, when Conimex started to cater for the growing demand in ingredients for the cuisine of the former colony of Indonesia. Conimex has been selling Indonesian ground spices in small jars, spice mixtures (bumbus) and sweet soy sauces (kecap) for decades now, but have recently strengthened their share of the Dutch market by selling convenience packets of Indian, Malay, or otherwise Asian flavorings, like sauce mixes for stir-frying and new inventions for cooking, like 'wok oil'.
The newest Conimex ad features two men - probably famous Dutch sportsmen (although I don't who they are) roaming about Beijing for the Olympics. The main sports guy walks on Tian'anmen square, while the voice over says : "As a sportsman, eating well is really important. That's why I buy fresh produce at the local market."
We see him heading to this farmer's market, where there are red lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and red, green and yellow Dutch glasshouse peppers on display. Our sportsman is bargaining hard for one cauliflower (a true Dutch vegetable), pays 5 yuan for it, gets himself some spring onions, and hurries home to his Beijing appartment with his shopping bag.
When he passes a rickshaw puller enjoying a bowl of noodles, the sportman says: " They are, like us, crazy about Chinese food, but ... I'd rather cook it by myself! That's why I take as much as I can from Holland, including Conimex". He comes home, plonks his bags in the kitchen, greets the second (sports)man sitting on a couch reading the paper, then opens up the pantry, takes out a packet of ready-to-wok rice, a packet of sweet-and-sour sauce, and starts to chop up the red bell pepper on a chopping board.
He heats a wok, and in 5 seconds, he mixes the pepper and chicken (?) with the cooked rice (the cauliflower and spring onions have disappeared), puts in green peas, pours a sweet and sticky looking sauce over his fried rice, and takes two flat plates to the couch where he and his friend enjoy the view of the new 'bird's nest' stadium. He sighs happily and says: "Just like home, but don't forget: they use chopsticks here..."
I was really jumping up and down in front of my tv screen at this moment. Nooo nooo nonooooo !!! You stupid man! How can you take your own bloody rice from Holland and your sweet and sour sauce, which have nothing to do with Beijing, and cook this plainest of Chinese foods, FRIED RICE for God's sake!, by yourself, while on the streets of Beijing, everywhere, at every street corner, in every restaurant, for a price way cheaper than your own imported fake Dutch package stuff, you will eat more delicious food than the two of you will ever dream to have when you insist on 'cooking' in your appartment?
The commercial is, however, well made, and quite funny in its stupid way. But I don't think there is any hope for Dutch Chinese cooking. Want to have a look yourself ? The Conimex ad is on YouTube.
The newest Conimex ad features two men - probably famous Dutch sportsmen (although I don't who they are) roaming about Beijing for the Olympics. The main sports guy walks on Tian'anmen square, while the voice over says : "As a sportsman, eating well is really important. That's why I buy fresh produce at the local market."
We see him heading to this farmer's market, where there are red lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and red, green and yellow Dutch glasshouse peppers on display. Our sportsman is bargaining hard for one cauliflower (a true Dutch vegetable), pays 5 yuan for it, gets himself some spring onions, and hurries home to his Beijing appartment with his shopping bag.
When he passes a rickshaw puller enjoying a bowl of noodles, the sportman says: " They are, like us, crazy about Chinese food, but ... I'd rather cook it by myself! That's why I take as much as I can from Holland, including Conimex". He comes home, plonks his bags in the kitchen, greets the second (sports)man sitting on a couch reading the paper, then opens up the pantry, takes out a packet of ready-to-wok rice, a packet of sweet-and-sour sauce, and starts to chop up the red bell pepper on a chopping board.
He heats a wok, and in 5 seconds, he mixes the pepper and chicken (?) with the cooked rice (the cauliflower and spring onions have disappeared), puts in green peas, pours a sweet and sticky looking sauce over his fried rice, and takes two flat plates to the couch where he and his friend enjoy the view of the new 'bird's nest' stadium. He sighs happily and says: "Just like home, but don't forget: they use chopsticks here..."
I was really jumping up and down in front of my tv screen at this moment. Nooo nooo nonooooo !!! You stupid man! How can you take your own bloody rice from Holland and your sweet and sour sauce, which have nothing to do with Beijing, and cook this plainest of Chinese foods, FRIED RICE for God's sake!, by yourself, while on the streets of Beijing, everywhere, at every street corner, in every restaurant, for a price way cheaper than your own imported fake Dutch package stuff, you will eat more delicious food than the two of you will ever dream to have when you insist on 'cooking' in your appartment?
The commercial is, however, well made, and quite funny in its stupid way. But I don't think there is any hope for Dutch Chinese cooking. Want to have a look yourself ? The Conimex ad is on YouTube.
Labels: Beijing, chinese, commercial, conimex, Dutch cooking, olympics, woksaus
9 Comments:
A very nice discovery. It is a very lucky that so few Chinese speak Dutch, otherwise a few million would feel very insulted!
Well, the ad can't be missed, it is splashed all over Dutch tv screens during the European soccer games!
I knew the Dutch knowledge of Chinese food is limited, but this proves my point more than I could wish for.
De twee heren zijn Dennis van der Geest (wereldkampioen 2005, +100kg) en Ruben Houkes (wereldkampioen 2007, -60kg) Nederlandse judoka's die deelnemen aan de Olympische spelen in Beijing. Dat maakt het nog triester eigenlijk, judo is immers een van origine Aziatische sport (Japans), daarmee mag je verwachten dat de heren 'iets' van die kant van de wereld weten. Helaas... Aan de andere kant is er met judo geen droog brood te verdienen, dus ongelijk kun je ze niet geven voor deze commerciële move... Maar om dan die rode smurrie te eten...twijfelgeval?
Haha, ze spelen het goed, maar ik hoop voor ze dat ze in Beijing lekker Pekingeend gaan eten!
Maybe, just maybe, this is a parody on the wellknown Dutch habit of taking along potatoes while on holiday, not to give them an outing, but for consumption?
(I have - by the way - once met an English family traveling with a tray of 100 eggs for breakfast purposes, because they didn't trust the continental eggs.)
It's like bringing owls to Athens, water to the sea, Conimex to China. Though I would classify Conimex as pseudo-Eurasian, and not Asian at all.
LOL !! I do agree with Lizet.. they try to use these kind of habits like Linus' blanket in Peanuts.. Italians too use to take with them all sorts of Italian food (spaghetti, parmisan cheese) in the effort to feel "like home" and refusing to open their eyes (and mouth) to local wonderful food experiences..
very funny spot, anyway :-)
Haha, I thought the same when I first saw this ad, what a silly one it is! :)
That's interesting. I wanted to share a great site with you about Chinese cooking. They have great how to video, tutorials, and instructions on how to prepare great tasting Chinese food. You can get some free recipes to try out. If you have problems making your food turn out right, they have easy to understand videos that will take you by the hand to make your food taste great. You really need to take a look at this, take a look at http://www.youtube.com/wokfusion, or go to them directly at http://www.wokfusion.com.
Gelukkig kun je met 1 arm ook nog best wokken. *evil grin*
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
<< Home