Vinod Gupta: Mr. Salesgenie

By now, most of America has been offended to some degree by the Salesgenie Superbowl commercial, if not in 2008, then in 2007. Here's the ad from this year's Superbowl:

Even the New York Times weighed in, noting that the ad had been pulled from the air. But how on earth could a produce such ridiculously racist ads?

“We never thought anyone would be offended,” said Mr. Gupta, who developed and wrote both commercials himself.

“The pandas are Chinese,” he said. “They don’t speak German.”

Still, “if I offended anybody,” Mr. Gupta said, “believe me, I apologize.”

Oh, I know now: the CEO Mr. Gupta WROTE THEM HIMSELF! What kind of CEO does his companies' ads, especially for the Superbowl? This guy is so out of touch, it's just sad. For more evidence, check out the other two Salesgenie Superbowl ads, the first from 2008, the latter from 2007:

So how can an obviously immigrant CEO not only tolerate but perpetuate this?

Mr. Gupta said he planned to keep running the other Salesgenie commercial, featuring an animated salesman named Ramesh who speaks with an Indian or other South Asian accent.

The reason, Mr. Gupta said, was that “more people seem upset about the pandas than Ramesh.”

“People have been making fun of my accent for years,” said Mr. Gupta, who described himself in the interview as half-Indian and half-Jewish. “And I love it.”

HE LOVES IT! Sigh... you have to admit though, as bad as these ads are, he's getting tons of free publicity off of it, much moreso than if I had had... I dunno... dancing lizards and a washed-up supermodel. In closing, any thoughts for your 2009 ad, Mr. Gupta?

Despite the response to this year’s ads, Mr. Gupta said he wanted to return to the Super Bowl next year because the commercials had generated millions in revenue for Salesgenie.

“Maybe next year, no audio,” he added, “so I don’t offend anybody.”