For the forum's American audience I'd like to apologise for the overwhelmingly patronising voiceover from the English woman on the Viking Cruises commercial currently being aired on US TV!
No-one BUT no-one talks like that in the UK, not even in Fortnum and Masons, I've never heard anything so cringeworthy.
Perhaps it was and American instructed to do it in an English accent. No matter the product, a British accent ads clout to the pitch, whether it is European river cruises or Miracle Slicers.
And I always thought Dick Van Dyke' cockney accent in "Mary Poppins" was accurate. Others beg to differ.
Oh she was British alright but terribly forced. And Dick Van Dyke was nowhere near close!
That British accent sells over here! Grey Poupon, Miracle Slicers, cooking gadgets, you name it.
How characteristically gracious of JC to apologise (as he quaintly spells it). No need, we eat that accent up! ;-)
Ha! Picturing “this person” at the beginning of the cruise teaching everyone how to properly speak English.
Perhaps she is related to these folks
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/beyond-europe/what-to-wear-when-visiting-america
( See link in the Original post)
That’s odd, I have British friends that talk like that....
oooh must go search for this ad!!!
Haha-I spend too much time on this forum to have time to watch TV!
Ha! Picturing “this person” at the beginning of the cruise teaching everyone how to properly speak English.
Well, she's pronouncing "leisure" as "leeesure" so she's off on the wrong foot for a start!
Anytime a company wants to add cachet to their product, make it sound/appear high class or exclusive, they use English accents.... always funny to me.
I was watching a US TV programme recently, and two characters who were supposedly English were talking to each other. They got the accents mostly right, but the vocabulary was horribly wrong. They used words like "gotten", "vacation" and others I can't remember - wrong. Then they walked past a "pub" (it was obviously a studio set), and a sign said "fresh foods" - wrong, it's "fresh food".
If they go to all that trouble with teaching the accent, at least they could get the scriptwriters to write in English.
P.S. Is this ad on YouTube, does anybody have a link?
For the forum's American audience I'd like to apologise for the
overwhelmingly patronising voiceover from the English woman on the
Viking Cruises commercial currently being aired on US TV!
Woman?
Do you not apologize for the man? Viking sponsors Masterpiece on PBS and this is the male voiceover.
I've noticed that Brits that spend a lot of time in the US or Canada, end up speaking with a mish-mash of their native English and American English, especially with the words used and often with a funny stilted sounded accent.
But I must agree that when I hear that woman on the commercial, it sets my teeth on edge.
Woman?
Do you not apologize for the man? Viking sponsors Masterpiece on PBS and this is the male voiceover.
No because he doesn't sound anywhere near as patronising and false as the woman. Are you suggesting that this is a sexist thing!!!!!
No...he’s saying the voiceover is a man not a woman. And it is....a man. At least the version that airs on PBS for Masterpiece in the US.
Is it this one?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0dBXIdLQ8
She sound like a spoof Joanna Lumley. Or perhaps it really is her and she turns it up a notch for colonial markets.
Nick, that's not the one I watched but I'm sure it's the same woman. The one I saw she was hamming it up even more.
No...he’s saying the voiceover is a man not a woman. And it is....a man. At least the version that airs on PBS for Masterpiece in the US.
I'm quite able to differentiate between a man and a woman's voice. The commercial I was referring to has a womans voiceover, how on Earth would I think it was a man?
Blockquote They used words like "gotten", "vacation" and others I can't remember - wrong. Then they walked past a "pub" (it was obviously a studio set), and a sign said "fresh foods" - wrong, it's "fresh food".
This is where people always go wrong when they try to fake an English accent. It's not just the accent. It's the vocabulary. Cracks me up every time!
OTOH - I was very impressed with LA Confidential. Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce did an exceptional job (I know - Aussies). Until the very end when Guy pronounced Los Angeles as Los Angelees. Argh!
The voice doesn't bother me at all...it's that silly commercial that makes me cringe. In our house we jokingly refer to Viking River Cruises as "seeing Europe pass you by through your bedroom window" or "Europe with your blankie".
JC how about a link so we all know what you're referring to....
Not really sure which one the OP was referring to as there are more than one, but this is the one that irritates me. Don't know what it is about her but I find her annoying.
Yes Nancy, that's the one! Nauseating.
overwhelmingly patronising voiceover
I find JC's description to be very apt.
After reading all the comments I did not find it as 'bad' as I was expecting it to be.
I think what one needs to do is take it in the context that it is an ad aimed at US viewers. I suspect the producers were looking to give it a "European" flavor by using an English speaker with an accent, to make it 'special'. Seems to have worked to the extent it got attention
From how everyone was dressed, it is obvious that 'traveling light' is an unknown/foreign concept
The stately home shown at 0:13, is Highclere Castle, as featured on TV in Downton Abbey. See here: http://www.britain-magazine.com/attractions-2/britains-top-10-film-and-tv-locations/
That is nowhere near any navigable river, and will not be included in any Viking Tours cruise.
At 0:52 she says "Travel and Lee-shoor". She may have got the accent vaguely right, but she can't pronounce leisure!
I all fairness, Ladies and Gentlemen, the context of the much scoffed at pronunciation of "Lee-shoor" is "Travel and Leisure" magazine. It is a US publication, based in New York City. That is the correct American pronunciation for this magazine, for those of you who are always at pains to use proper local pronunciations for cities and regions. I don't believe it is published in Europe, since the Russia edition was folded many years ago.
Hey, at least we both use the same pronunciation for Worcester.
I'm not one for using the local pronounciation. I don't say tomato, vitamin or route as American's would pronounce them when I'm in the US, that would simply be weird and contrived. People know what I mean just as I've never heard an American pronounce those words in the British way when they're in the UK, why would they? So if the purpose of using a British narrator is to add an air of supposed quality then you shouldn't expect them to pronounce words as an American would
It's the same when people write a post on here and insist on writing Sevilla but they write Spain instead of Espana (can't be bothered to find the accents) or Roma but then refer to Italy, if you want to try and sound educated and well travelled at least be consistent!
I think that lady has a South African accent rather than a British one? It sounds like that to me on the final “dot com”. Some people from there have accents that sound like the old-fashioned posh English ones which are dying out in England itself.
Don’t get me started! I’ve been listening to some “British “ gal, with a condescending tone, try and sell me a Lexus on the radio for a month! Annoys the heck out of me, so much so I turn it off. I love a British accent, but these commercials seem to use a tone that I find high and mighty and insincere.
My guess for the male voice in the other Viking ad is that of the late British actor, Tim Pigott-Smith. He played Ronald Merrick in the series The Jewel in the Crown.
Back when I studied advertising, one of the tenets was Americans perceive the speaker to be more intelligent when they speak with a British accent. (Also more intelligent when wearing a lab coat and/or glasses.)
Remember advertising is more about selling the ad to the buyer than selling the product to you and me. Many stupid things in advertising are there because the buyer liked it.
I love watching ads. You get 30 seconds to create a world where your product is the one thing that solves the problem you just created - great entertainment.
