The latest series of Pot Noodle adverts have received 37 complaints, saying they’re racist towards the Welsh. Not sure you can actually be racist to the Welsh (Jingoist? Xenophobic? Nationist?), them not actually being a separate race and all, but the complaints are in, all the same.
I’m in two minds, myself. Can you oppress and stereotype a group of people as miners?
“Look at yous. You’re all a bunch of miners.”
Not really that upsetting, is it? It’s up there in the insult stakes with Nick Hancock’s put-down of Londoners: “Oh, go and sell some fruit and veg.”
But, as in all things, it’s the feelings of those on the receiving end that count more, and so far the reaction from the Welsh has mostly been, “Quite funny, really”, so it looks like the complaints are for nothing.
Anyway, I can forgive the ad most things, since it’s voiced by Philip Madoc, one of the best actors who’s ever lived and the Welshest Welshman alive. They’re aren’t many people that can star in their own hard-hitting crime drama, A Mind to Killl (aka Heliwr), shoot two versions of every episode simultaneously – one in Welsh and one in English – and be fantastic in both.
All the same, here’s the Pot Noodle advert, so you can make up your own mind (hopefully, not to kill).
