Page 139 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

128 • Sport, Media and Society

positioned next to the car, his hand on his hip, physically occupying more space. The
names of the characters, Gavin (Welsh), Ben (Scots), Reece (English), and Connor
(Irish), carried varying associations with nationality and sophistication.
Within the group, Reece, the Englishman, was presented as the most adult and
dependable, being the car’s driver and the group leader. Gavin, the Welshman, by
contrast, was the group’s most childlike character. Many commentators have pointed
to a hierarchy within the group of nations that constitute Britain and Ireland. For
example, Davey (1999: 6) argued that the overarching identity of Britishness has
simply concealed the dominance of Englishness with the multinational state of the
United Kingdom: ‘the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish may have dual identifi cations,
but for the Anglo-British, Britain serves as another name for the ambitious and self

confident England that has existed as a nation state since the fourteenth century.’
Within the Peugeot advertisements, the English character was positioned as quietly,
but obviously, in charge. In British popular culture, the other nations have been made
the butt of jokes. In recent years, anti-Welsh jokes made by high-profi le celebrities
have drawn media attention. For example, in 2001, Anne Robinson, the presenter
of the British Broadcasting Corporation quiz show The Weakest Link, caused much
controversy with her anti-Welsh comments. The Peugeot advertisements continued
this thread, making the Welsh character’s confusion a focus of the humour.

Along for the Ride

In one of the sequences, lasting only nine seconds, the camera was positioned as if
being held by someone in the back seat of the car, capturing shots of the backs of
the heads of Gavin (Welsh) in the front passenger seat and Reece (English) in the

driver’s seat as well as traffic in a French city street, visible through the windscreen.

A reflection in the driver’s mirror of eyes shaded by sunglasses reflected back a
gaze, uniting the viewer’s perspective with that of Reece, the source of the refl ection.
The focus of the short sequence was a snippet of seemingly ongoing conversation.
Gavin’s words started the sequence: ‘I came out to watch the rugby, boys’, greeted
with ‘Oh really’ from Reece. Realising the potentiality of his statement to be read as
homosexual desire, Gavin quickly attempted to clarify his meaning: ‘Not “watch the
rugby boys” ’. Uproars of laughter from the others caused him to try again: ‘I came
out to watch the rugby. Full stop. Boys’, before the sequence ended.
In another sequence, the characters were featured ordering food from a French
waitress at a roadside restaurant. The scene opened with Reece ordering in French,
‘Le Chateaubriand, s’il vous plait.’ As the waitress turned to Gavin, ‘Monsieur?’
Gavin responded with, ‘Chicken tikka, please toots.’ Gavin’s lack of cultural sensi-
tivity is exaggerated by ordering a meal typically consumed in Britain by groups of
men after a night in the pub. Gavin’s infantile character, in contrast to Reece’s matu-
rity, was a constant theme. In one sequence, Reece called him ‘an idiot’ for delaying
them because of a ‘dodgy crêpe’. In another, Gavin was depicted constantly asking