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I'm wondering who he thought he was supposed to be. The man from Del Monte was a white guy called Brian.
kl-
From an interview with the guy who played the character:
“they’d spent something like a million dollars on forming psychological outlines or description of the entity they wanted to place between the product and the purchaser. And their research told them that the purchaser, the main purchaser of their particular goods, Del Monte goods, products, were female, the vast majority were female, and they wanted an entity or something to come between the product and the purchaser that could be trusted and looked as though it could be trusted. And the analyses, or the people doing the analysis or project, came up with, well it’s male, he is caucasian, because he had to be accepted in the Orient, in Asia, and America, to all the ethnic minorities, because it was a worldwide campaign. But they came up with white, cosmopolitan. He has to be of a certain age. Over 40, possibly over 50, and have quiet authority, so that a purchaser, ladies in the supermarket, could trust that person, and that was the brief. And apparently I fitted this without even knowing it.“
sacredhart
For the sake of keeping things in proportion. That really does appear to be an attempt at the man from Del Monte, with dodgy tan included. If you think that he is "blacking-up" for that, who do you think he is meant to be?