BenQ uses 9/11 for advertising campaign.. caution sensitive image

[Maxx Power]

Pulling a handfull of fourth graders from one of the worst education districts in the U.S. and comparing them to peers from another countries elite is hardly scientific and totally distorting.

Yeah, its hard to make direct comparisons. Nobody is born knowledgeable, nature provides very little, its the nurture thereafter that really makes a individual shine, and a gifted person blossom. Unfortunately for a lot of the public schools in most states, the children there doesn't have any opportunities to be nurtured properly because they are under challenged. Here in the North America, we hardly took a look at how everyone else in the world is commencing their elementary school programs, we've always just assumed that because we are powerful and wealthy, we should automatically get everything right on the first try. This obviously didn't work for public education. There is a huge gap between the "smart" and the "street smart", and the number of victims falling into the latter has dramatically increased overtime. We can push our students a bit harder, not to the extremes of China and Japan, or even India, but it might be too late to not work our kids.

Its not entirely the education systems' fault, I mind you, since all that attention they've been lavishing on video games, self-images and peer-pressure really doesn't help either.

 

[princealfie]

Yeah, its hard to make direct comparisons. Nobody is born knowledgeable, nature provides very little, its the nurture thereafter that really makes a individual shine, and a gifted person blossom. Unfortunately for a lot of the public schools in most states, the children there doesn't have any opportunities to be nurtured properly because they are under challenged. Here in the North America, we hardly took a look at how everyone else in the world is commencing their elementary school programs, we've always just assumed that because we are powerful and wealthy, we should automatically get everything right on the first try. This obviously didn't work for public education. There is a huge gap between the "smart" and the "street smart", and the number of victims falling into the latter has dramatically increased overtime. We can push our students a bit harder, not to the extremes of China and Japan, or even India, but it might be too late to not work our kids.

Its not entirely the education systems' fault, I mind you, since all that attention they've been lavishing on video games, self-images and peer-pressure really doesn't help either.

Add lousy parents and crystal meth epidemic and I think you get the idea.

 

[freeny]

Oh really? I'm stunned that you find that over half of kiddies here being unable to identify even our own states on a map to be "educated!"

My goodness, why do we need all these iPods if we don't even know geography.

Oh, we have Paris Hellton to worship I forgot. Dohhhh!!!

You really dont get it do you? Are you reading my posts?

STOP WITH THE BLANKET STATEMENTS!

They did not poll ALL the "kiddies" here. They polled a select group from a selected area and within that group this is how they fared. You will get totally different results depending on who and where the poll is given.

Are you just like inner city kids from D.C.? May I group you within that demographic? I would then assume you are stupid too.

Thats like taking a poll in Salt Lake City as to how many people are paligamists. Then blanketly saying ??% of Americans are paligamists.

Why do you also assume that we all worship Paris Hilton?

Please speak for yourself.

 

[OwlsAndApples]

You really dont get it do you? Are you reading my posts?

STOP WITH THE BLANKET STATEMENTS!

They did not poll ALL the "kiddies" here. They polled a select group from a selected area and within that group this is how they fared. You will get totally different results depending on who and where the poll is given.

Are you just like inner city kids from D.C.? May I group you within that demographic? I would then assume you are stupid too.

Thats like taking a poll in Salt Lake City as to how many people are paligamists. Then blanketly saying ??% of Americans are paligamists.

Why do you also assume that we all worship Paris Hilton?

Please speak for yourself.

Firstly chill.

Are all Americans stupid? Of course not. The only generalisation which I think can apply to this situation is what the Americans did the English language - simplify it. By reducing the English language to phonetics, it can be argued that many cannae cope. However, it can also be argued that the language has been made more logical, and thus more intelligent.

The point I'm trying to make is blanket statements are wrong and ignorant - there are two sides to every argument. (And I realise my example is undermined that Shakespeare's novels have been simplified for easier understanding in English lessons in some schools here ).

From the legendary Mark Twain:

"All generalisations are false, including this one."

 

[princealfie]

You really dont get it do you? Are you reading my posts?

STOP WITH THE BLANKET STATEMENTS!

They did not poll ALL the "kiddies" here. They polled a select group from a selected area and within that group this is how they fared. You will get totally different results depending on who and where the poll is given.

Are you just like inner city kids from D.C.? May I group you within that demographic? I would then assume you are stupid too.

Thats like taking a poll in Salt Lake City as to how many people are paligamists. Then blanketly saying ??% of Americans are paligamists.

Why do you also assume that we all worship Paris Hilton?

Please speak for yourself.

Dude, this is the whole nation we are talking about. Yes, its a select sample but it's fairly representative of an average school. National Geographic ran the poll in various places and took the law of averages.

And nope, I didn't come from the inner city (although I enjoyed getting to know the sociology of the area), in fact, went to a fancyschmaltzy Ivy League school. So I know that a ton of people there didn't know their geography at a private $30,000 school. That's experience.

I've lived in various places through the US from the East to West from NYC to SLC. So I know what I am talking about from experience. In fact, it's ironic that Borat is creating more awareness for the need to understand geography. If we valued education as we should be, we wouldn't be in a quagmire of finding more scientists to commit to research labs, etc. etc.

And it's cultural too. What other country (except Germany and Japan) have the necessity of metal detectors to prevent school shootings and diversion of educational resources? We should be spending that money on Saxon math books instead!

I'm not saying that everyone is unintelligent here in this country, just that everyone ought to know basic facts and we don't in the majority. When our politicians can't even spell "potato" or typical words in the English language, what am I supposed to tell my future kids?

Before discounting the poll, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics)#Sampling_and_data_collection

It's a national poll, not a single school/area poll.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1120_021120_GeoRoperSurvey.html

They polled using stratified sampling across matched groups in various groups.
Okay, I've proven the case. http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/ for the source of the geographic test.

Before levying accusations of bias, one needs to fact check. This is my legacy: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geosurvey/templates/question_1.html

What's the score?

 

[TheAnswer]

I think the Paris Hilton reference keeps popping up because it symbolizes the one thing that Americans generally value over things like geography, science, math, and politics: Pop culture knowledge...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Show White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.

...57 percent of Americans could identify J.K. Rowling's fictional boy wizard as Harry Potter, while only 50 percent could name the British prime minister, Tony Blair.

The pollsters spoke to 1,213 people across the United States. The results had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

Just over 60 percent of respondents were able to name Bart as Homer's son on the television show "The Simpsons," while only 20.5 percent were able to name one of the ancient Greek poet Homer's epic poems...

Asked what planet Superman was from, 60 percent named the fictional planet Krypton, while only 37 percent knew that Mercury is the planet closest to the sun.

Twice as many people (23 percent) were able to identify the most recent winner of the television talent show "American Idol," Taylor Hicks, as were able to name the Supreme Court Justice confirmed in January 2006, Samuel Alito (11 percent).

So I stand corrected on my earlier assumption that ALL students can name the American Idol finalist. But as this was a Zogby poll, I'm gonna guess the demographic trended a little older than the geography poll...so we can't fairly compare the results of the two and draw any firm conclusions. Still sad though.

 

[TheAnswer]

(And I realise my example is undermined that Shakespeare's novels have been simplified for easier understanding in English lessons in some schools here ).

OMG...You're right...they've turned them into...plays.

I guess that is so they read more like an episode of The OC.

 

[princealfie]

Yeah, I'm gonna return back to listening (or getting) the audiobook for Robert Fagles' translation of "The Aeneid". I never finished reading it.

 

[decksnap]

This thread has really turned south. I wonder how many of you 'smart' people understand the definition of 'stereotype'.

Calling Americans dumb is like called english people ugly. It's a prejudice stereotype that you've cultivated in your head. The US has dumb people. So does every other country. We also have tons of exceptional schools, and millions of brilliant and successful people.

 

[princealfie]

This thread has really turned south. I wonder how many of you 'smart' people understand the definition of 'stereotype'.

Calling Americans dumb is like called english people ugly. It's a prejudice stereotype that you've cultivated in your head. The US has dumb people. So does every other country. We also have tons of exceptional schools, and millions of brilliant and successful people.

This isn't stereotypes. This is statistics.
Apparently the No Child Left Behind programs depend on them. So which benchmarks are you suggesting that we measure our kids by?

 

[decksnap]

This isn't stereotypes. This is statistics.
Apparently the No Child Left Behind programs depend on them. So which benchmarks are you suggesting that we measure our kids by?

That's like calling people in other countries poor because 'statistically' we have more money than most.

Polls are typically sketchy statistics to begin with. "50% of people polled said they would switch from the iPod to the Zune."

 

[Drodr28]

What's the score?

Just my 2 cents. The target market for this ad or where it was used makes no difference in my opinion. Should it be ok to show concentration camps for advertising but only in certain areas of the world?

And Princealfie, show a little tact and maybe just an ounce of respect. If I remember correctly you would be speaking German if it wasnt for us language-slaughtering americans.

BenQ will never get my AMERICAN $.

 

[imacintel]

to benQ

 

[princealfie]

BenQ is a poor imitation of a real company to begin with: http://reviews.cnet.com/BenQ_Joybee_102R_128MB_green/4505-6490_7-31153458.html

Seriously even the name is a ripoff of the real thing: http://www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp

The quality of BenQ sucks to begin with so I wouldn't consider them in light of th e iPod.

Of course, being from New York, brutal honesty is most important. Wordmincing is like a ginzu knife to me. I use it sparingly and debatingly. Non est vivere sed valere vita est.

 

[Maxx Power]

BenQ is a poor imitation of a real company to begin with: http://reviews.cnet.com/BenQ_Joybee_102R_128MB_green/4505-6490_7-31153458.html

Seriously even the name is a ripoff of the real thing: http://www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp

BenQ is not a imitation company. They sell a lot of stuff and have contracts with BestBuy, TigerDirect, etc, the big first tier companies. They also make some high quality LCD monitors, everything up to 24 inches. They also make optical drives both under their own name and sold to other companies, you may not even know that but a lot of optical drives are rebranded BenQ's.

BenQ has been around for a while too, they used to be a division of Acer, and then decided to spin off and become independant. Acer and BenQ should both be a lot bigger companies than Bang-Olufsen, a high end audio equipment maker.

 

[OwlsAndApples]

This thread has really turned south. I wonder how many of you 'smart' people understand the definition of 'stereotype'.

Calling Americans dumb is like called english people ugly. It's a prejudice stereotype that you've cultivated in your head. The US has dumb people. So does every other country. We also have tons of exceptional schools, and millions of brilliant and successful people.

Sorry, but this made my day. Not only does it sum up the thread but it also undermines itself...hmm

 

[Tanglewood]

This ad may be tastely to a market it wasn't intended for, but with how everything is so global now a days that its hard to keep things exclusive to any one country.

Though it doesn't even come close to how awful marketing can get. Take for example Nestlé marketing of baby formula to developing countries in the 1970s....

Since the late 1970s, Nestlé has attracted much criticism for its baby milk marketing policies in developing countries. This has centered on its apparent recommendations for nursing mothers to switch to its infant formula milk products, leading to the alleged deaths of about 1.5 million babies each year as a result of formula being mixed with contaminated water[citation needed]. Nestlé allegedly has violated the widely agreed-upon International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes[3]. This has led to a boycott coordinated by the International Nestlé Boycott Committee, informed by monitoring conducted by the International Baby Food Action Network. In 1982, Nestlé implemented the WHO Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes in developing countries. The instructions were reviewed and refined in 1984 in consultation with the WHO, UNICEF and the International Nestlé Boycott Committee.
Nestlé itself still advertised breast milk replacements and used pictures of babies in its advertising in 2004[4]. Nestlé has issued instructions to all its offices to ensure strict compliance with the International Code.

 

[angelneo]

Just my 2 cents. The target market for this ad or where it was used makes no difference in my opinion. Should it be ok to show concentration camps for advertising but only in certain areas of the world?

And Princealfie, show a little tact and maybe just an ounce of respect. If I remember correctly you would be speaking German if it wasnt for us language-slaughtering americans.

BenQ will never get my AMERICAN $.

No one is arguing that the advert is great or appropriate. The point some people make is that the market it is made for including BenQ(China) is unaware that it is a picture from WTC. BenQ made a mistake, they apologises and pull the site. It's an accidental mistake, an oversight, why can't some of you let go?

 

[Quboid]

Man all this crossfire over a picture in an ad? IT offends me and it doesn't offend you, and my cousin thinks the the boy is cute, the other guy thinks the desinger used too much color...... the point is we all have different views on things (everything). Where's the love on macrumors? . Maybe they wanted to offend, maybe they wanted to sell, maybe the designer had a bad day, maybe he was forced to put it there by a bad girlfriend. Who knows.

Discussions should be sharing views not being right.

 

[bousozoku]

No one is arguing that the advert is great or appropriate. The point some people make is that the market it is made for including BenQ(China) is unaware that it is a picture from WTC. BenQ made a mistake, they apologises and pull the site. It's an accidental mistake, an oversight, why can't some of you let go?

I think it's the same thing with Apple. "Apple didn't give me blah blah blah, so I'm never going to buy anything from Apple ever again. I'm going to Dell."

I don't see anyone buying anything from BenQ anyway.

I'm sure it was the first time the company got worldwide attention. They're probably extremely embarrassed.