Despite what they’re claiming, it seems Definitive Television has taken it upon themselves to produce a controversial ad for McCutcheon & Hamner, who don’t even use television ads, and they now refuse to take down their YouTube hit commercial, simply because they are enjoying some cheap notoriety, even if it comes at McCutcheon’s expense.
The ad futures a white man pretended to be Asian quoting a bogus Confucius statement, dressed in stereotypical traditional Chinese garb, and speaking in a ridiculous accent.
Definitive Television claims that though they previously received less than 200 views a day, this blurb of an ad, which holds interest entirely by being offensive, has gained the website 20,000 hits in 24 hours.
That is why they are ignoring a cease and desist from McCutcheon & Hamner, who state, and entirely credibly, that they have nothing to do with this nonsense, and what’s worse, it’s costing them a lot of headaches.
“Me personally, I’m getting death threats, my two daughters are upset beyond belief. And we don’t know why,” said McCutcheon & Hamner lawyer Joel Hamner, as reported by ABAJournal. “I don’t know what to say. I know this – the effect and toll it’s taken on my wife and my children.”
“Twenty years, you do everything you can for your clients, you cut away from family time, you do everything you can to take care of clients and their cases, and then this happens to you.” I think that this is a bit over-dramatic and self-pitying: he should suffer fools a bit better. After all, few serious clients are going to buy the claim that the respectful company hired such clowns to make an ad for them.
All they can do is what they have done. Joel Hamner told Above the Law that the firm “worked diligently to determine the source of this video. We insisted that the video be removed and that he disclose the party that allowed my partner and I to be portrayed in such a negative and misleading light. Of course, Mr. DeBerry has refused and we are currently investigating our legal options.”
Jim DeBerry, of Definitive Television, for his part, gave a non-apology with the words, “I apologize if anybody’s offended. Everyone has the right to an opinion. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to watch. We have nothing against Asian-Americans.” Nothing against them, no; in fact, they’d love to profit by insulting them.
Whatever the case, ultimately, such tasteless hijinx will cost no long-term detriment to McCutcheon & Hamner, because anybody with a brain will know that Definitive Television are an irresponsible and deceitful group using shock-value and the exploitation of knee-jerk stereotypes to secure a few paltry hits on Reddit. McCutcheon & Hamner holds nobler values.