Avoid dirty locals: stay at a Langham Hotel

At the risk of repeating ourselves: yes, the Dark Side can be a spooky place. Local habits, food and hygiene remind us why we like to hide among our peers on the island and go grocery shopping at GREAT. Langham Hotels agrees wholeheartedly, but decided to take that notion one step further in their latest promo vid. It shows a distressed white woman, wandering around anxiously in Kowloon in search of food. Having finally found a location to eat, she orders chicken with rice, only to discover (EEK!) that a chicken foot in congee is served. She rushes back to the Eaton Hotel, a true oasis because that’s where she can have some proper chow (a spring roll.. Woot). The message?

‘Langham Hotels: where white people go to pretend they’re not surrounded by filthy Chinese’ (courtesy of Miss O’Kistic, found on our Twitter page).

The genius behind these ‘Big Deal’ videos appears to be Douglas White, a social media douche ‘leader’ who finds it incredibly important to show us what he looks like (slight smirk on his slightly faded Twitter page background, full body shot here).  However, the true star of Episode II is none other than couch surfing hippie Kay Ross: marketing consultant, editor, copywriter, connector, comedian, actor, singer and why not, healer. Thanks Kay. You have indeed healed all non-HK based viewers from thinking that this is a cosmopolitan city. The Hong Kong Tourism Board salutes you.

Update: Bingo! Both Douglas and Kay are fans of The Dark Side now.

Update II: Episode III is online! Douglas, you have truly outdone yourself this time.

Update III: A pretty “Big Deal” indeed, Langham removed all videos. Fortunately we were able to retrieve the first two episodes here.

Update IV: Today (16-6-2009) we received an email from Youtube saying they deleted the Youtube vids due to a copyright infringement claim by Langham Hotels. You wonder what took ‘m so long, considering the shitload of bad publicity. Luckily we found the 2nd episode on Dailymotion, click here for more.

23 May, 2009 | Milfo | Hong Kong
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  • summerfails
    The hardest part is keeping the bag small for airline travel, but if you’re going by car/rail once you’re over there, don’t be afraid to get shampoo/soap/etc at a store once you land, then pack your bag a little thicker during your travels, and chuck it all before you fly back. It worked great for us, along with laundry mat visits once a week (it’s fun trying to do laundry by pictures since you can’t understand the words!).
    ____________________________
    Bangkok Hotels
  • Johnny
    BTW

    I personally don't think the vids are that offenssive, I just think they were really poorly made and the messgae came across all wrong.

    But you and the other guy (I foget his name) just come across so arrogant with your reactions. I find that quite offensive.
  • Johnny
    To Kay Ross

    Out of the 23 posts on your blog “I Confess: I Truly Don’t Like Eating Chicken’s Feet” at http://www.kayross.com/blog/

    1 person fidn it mildly amusing and another supporter just says the HK chinese has no sense of humour ( I will give that one as it implies the video is funny).

    Thats 2 out of 23 posts. The rest are either completely against you or think you made a huge error of judgement. With these stats on your own website, don't you think its time just to own up you made a mistake and do the decent thing and apologies?
  • creative freelance
    Having watched the virals, I admire the clients bravery in using humour to stand-out from the boring muck -
    the scripts though were rubbish to say the least. I think anyone who has a sense of humour can write a script of some sort.It takes years of experience to craft a tv script and to do it on a full-time basis for big brands having learn't to develope a sense of what is good and bad taste - that's what separates the amatures from the professionals. Bad ads or virals generally happen when a client has zero budget,or are just plain ignorant!
    As for the people who conceived the viral scripts, remember this: a creative communications company live or die by what they create.
  • py
    cheap marketing; cheap production; dumb foreigners - instead of apologising, we're the ones with no sense of humour? maybe it's just westerners have no manners.
  • LJ
    Can someone please re-enact the videos or make a spoof, because I havent seen it yet. I believe there are many like me who have become interested in this discussion but not had the chance to view them yet. Were they really as insulting as people have said they are? Maybe we can hire a Kay Ross look-alike for the spoof.
  • Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.
  • Snowdrops
    Ooops, just realised that Kay Ross was actually the woman in the clip who ordered the "chicken with rice" rather than the exhausted guy in the first epi. So I should have corrected my comment above to mention the ignorant white women as well as men who thought up this viral campaign. My mistake.

    Also, just belatedly realised that the Tribute to Donald Duck is not actually written by you guys. Oh well. The snarkiness of the song really suit your site though. How about inviting the creator of the song into your team of anonymous bloggers?
  • Snowdrops
    Oh just discovered this glorious website through the Guardian (yes the Brit newspaper, long story about how one link led to another).

    Anyway, am gobsmacked at the vids (well by the time I came here there are only epis 1 and 2 left). Those white guys who thought up this viral campaign rather remind me of those paranoid types I met at a conference in Atlanta who were soooooo frightened to be walking on their own in broad day light because there are, GASP, black people walking on the streets. And for Kay Ross to call himself a hippie?!?!?! Jesus wept!

    The moral of the story:
    "Langham Hotels: the panic room for paranoid whites when confronted with the real world and its people "

    Anyway, the only thing I hate about your site actually is your "about" page - hey my family originated from Kowloon and NT, and for you to be so dispaparging about anywhere outside of the little frog island is really hypocritical, especially if you could see what's so wrong about these Langham vids. Also, the expats community does not consist solely of ABCs, what about the BBCs. After all, HK was a British colony!

    But all of the above is forgiven when I saw your tribute song to the Donald Duck. Respect!
  • David Martin
    my guess is you guys can dish it out and not take it. "awaiting moderation" hey? not likely to make it i suspect.
  • David Martin
    The Dark Side? what is this revolting little hyper-judgemental website? Who are you to call people a douchebag? Was the video really that bad? Have you nothing better to worry about? The douchebag is in the mirror pal. I know Kay Ross vaguely... DOuglas White I do not know... but if I were either one of them i'd sue your ass. You should be grateful they are so kind and light-hearted about how you have smeared them - pity you can't be the same. Jerk.
  • Jimmy
    Really, people who are angry at the videos have got to be joking. It's no secret that some foreign visitors might find some parts of Hong Kong a bit troubling, and by comparison, the Langham hotels would be a welcome relief. The videos were playing off of this idea and they're pretty funny. Comedy often relies on generalizations and exaggeration and will, out of necessity, not tell the full story. This doesn't make something racist or offensive.
  • As marketers, irrelevant to whether on traditional, digital, or social mediums, a key component to a campaigns success is by really knowing our audience.

    They obviously didn't know their form of satirical humor was not really funny to many.
  • Johnny Mountain
    Kay Ross; Marketing consultant, editor, copywriter, connector, comedian, actor, singer, healer, CouchSurfer and Auschwitz guard..
  • Oh come on people, what's with the moral indignation. Two badly thought out and quite boring ads which, if allowed to run, would just have made people shake their heads over how amateur and silly they are.

    I think what Langham as a building project has done to Mong Kok is much worse. Indeed one of their slogans is: "Langham Place, Changing The Face Of Mong Kok." Well they've succeeded there. The place is ruined.
  • Doris Chambers
    What's the problem? This is supposed to be satire? It just shows people the way Hong Kong is.
  • Lewi
    very insulting, not only for locals but also for the many foreigners that live here Now go away, twitter hippie.
  • I'm Kay Ross, the actor from Episode 2 - that's right, I was just a hired actor playing a role. Not everyone hates the videos - some people genuinely do find them funny and don't think they insult Hong Kong. Check out my latest blog posting, "I Confess: I Truly Don't Like Eating Chicken's Feet" at http://www.kayross.com/blog/
  • bob sagget
    chris, you my friend are indignant.
  • Such a discouraging video for new tourists. What is the hotel for if there is no tourist coming to the city? Ridiculously contradicting marketing campaign.
  • Ed
    The vids are gone!! And the ones on YouTube seem to be privatised..
  • Chris
    Yes, you're absolutely right, because Hong Kong is a clean place where eating on the street is practically the same as dining in a five-star restaurant. Every time I go to a dai pai dong for chicken's feet, I'm greeted with a smile, they take my jacket and hang it in the cloakroom for me and escort me to my table where my fine repast is served, fresh off the stove from the most sanitary kitchen available, and the washrooms are so clean I could eat off the floor....NOT. Hell, the doctors in the hospitals don't even wash their hands after coughing on them, before putting in an IV--true story! Get real, Hong Kong has some NASTY places, the ad is a joke, your attack on Kay Ross is unwarranted, and if you weren't so busy being indignant, you'd have noticed comedic exaggeration. But of course, we can't poke fun at ourselves in Hong Kong, being a cosmopolitan city and all. The Hong Kong Tourist Board thanks you for protecting their virginity.
  • JOE
    Dumb Ads! I have no idea why they did such dumb ads! I truely believe this doesn't reflect the "real" Hong Kongers. ( I am from HK)
  • Andrew Chan
    This makes HK looks BAD. And then to think Langham Hotels belongs to a Chinese family!
  • Jo
    It's always the most racist people who look for racism (and not surprisingly, find it under every rock). Sort of like hunting for witches - you know you're going to find some.
  • David
    You've gotta call it as you see it. A douchebag is a douchebag is a douchebag.
  • Douche
    LOL
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