Germans, stereotypes increasingly featured in advertising

"All of a sudden, Germans are cute," says Rob Schwartz, executive creative director for ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day in Los Angeles. "There is something in the zeitgeist. ... Part of it is born of pragmatism. The World Cup was in Germany, and it put Germany on the brain. But also, more than ever, brands are looking to differentiate."

So the Christina Aguilera spot is a logistical nightmare -- as it clearly indicates we're in Germany, how much melisma would it have taken for Xtina to struggle through "Das Lied der Deutschen"? And why does the [ambiguously] German crowd not lynch her for her blasphemy? Would we giggle if Sarah Connor sang "Don't Stop Believin'" instead of the National Anthem before a Mets game? (Wait, that would be awesome.)

Meanwhile, DaimlerChrysler doesn't have the target demographic of say, a Volkswagen (20-40 yr. hipsters, city dwellers, first-time buyers), but they're still strategically emplacing a German -- one of their CFOs, even riskier, one would think -- to ease, rather than unsettle, the apprehensions of consumers. What unlikely turn advertising, which second-guesses the will of the public more surely than they do themselves, has taken!

The truth is we love the German accent and we love the tactless, unblinking sincerity. Times have changed, and deeply-rooted Nazi infatuation is evolving into a deathly-afraid-to-be-considered-a-Nazi yet unswervingly punctilious and blunt stereotype. No more dissembling is necessary: the German is the one you want to explain the machine he made to you, and in person. I needn't stay awake at night that the Reichstag will be seized, an expressed concern I once heard from one of my less urbane friends back home. Germans are no longer a threat, and it's finally sunk into the American conscious.

In other news, Nic Cage has bought a cut-rate Bavarian castle.