Mar
11
Stephen Colbert is so not selling men’s clothing in Iran
By
Colbert Nation forum member Golgo13 has shared some very humorous pictures taken during a recent trip to Iran. According to Golgo13:
I went to Iran recently and saw Stephen Colbert Advertising for a popular men’s store… Not only in Tehran but also in Shiraz.
Of course he does not officially endorse the store but since Iran does not comply with international copyright and trademark laws they can put whoever they want on their ads.
Here’s some pictures taken by Goglo13, and for those of who who read the August 2008 Esquire article, this picture will look awfully familiar. Hopefully one of the Zoners speaks Farsi – like many of the Colbert Nation forum members, I’d love to know what he’s “saying”, too!
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46 Comments
March 11th, 2009 at 12:25 am
OMG, that is so wild! I hope someone can translate for us.
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March 11th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Whatever it is, it’s “MAXIM collection”! His hand gestures are hilarious.
reCAPTCHA: pound Married.
I ain’t saying nothing. XD
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March 11th, 2009 at 1:13 am
LOL that’s hilarious! someone’s been taking a little too much liberty with their interpretation of copyright!
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March 11th, 2009 at 1:19 am
Man, they really photoshopped him. Or at least got rid of his tie. I really hope this makes it on the show.
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March 11th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
in iran, as you may know, the govt strongly discourages men from wearing ties, because it is, to the old-fashioned hard liners, a symbol of the “evil western” culture. a lot of young people and moderates wear ties, but you won’t see men on tv or in any media having a tie.
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March 11th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Maxim clothing?? Hilarious!
And is it just me, or does Stephen look so shiny…almost like plastic? Or is that the Photoshop job? I’m pretty tech-illiterate, you see. :)
reCAPTCHA: expecting T-shirt
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March 11th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Ha! I love how Stephen comes across as the Universal Caucasian Business Male™ in promo pics for the show. (Although, did they photoshop out a tie?) I seem to recall a Daily Show where an audience member brought Jon a picture of a suit/tailor shop in . . . Thailand? Hong Kong? Using a TDS promo shot of him in a large advertisement. Fame! Though Big in Iran doesn’t have quite the same ring as Big in Japan. Awesome work Golgo13!
Captcha: Poopte time (*eyebrow* was Captcha watching the biologist interview too?)
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March 11th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Haha! I remember that. That was hilarious!
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March 11th, 2009 at 5:30 am
What a hilarious way to start of an early morning! I love it.
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March 11th, 2009 at 5:37 am
That is pretty darn funny, and yes I do believe they photoshopped out the tie. I so want to see them do something with this on the show!
(reCAPTCHA: $3.13-million Gould. Well alrighty then…)
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March 11th, 2009 at 6:00 am
I started transcribing the text but damn, it’s Persian, not Arabic. There are one or two letters I don’t recognize :/ Wish I could have helped.
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March 11th, 2009 at 6:13 am
That’s pretty hilarious. I hope this makes it on the show. That’s so random. And it’s interesting that they would photo shop his tie out.
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March 11th, 2009 at 9:16 am
They probably took out the tie to make the outfit more Ahmadinejad-y
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March 12th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Apparently Stephen agrees! Good eye, Becca!
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March 11th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Oh, translation please, I simply must know why Colbert was selected to point out ‘% upside down ho’.
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:19 am
do you all remembering seeing this in the Esquire from last year? they didn’t just get rid of the tie, but also an arrow sticking out of his forehead!
this is sooooo amusing, and I lol’d.
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March 11th, 2009 at 10:46 am
Hahaha! That’s the first thing I noticed when I saw that picture!
reCAPTCHA: Houssin Live-
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March 11th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
lol! They went to a lot of photoshopping trouble to use Stephen’s image.
But having Stephen Colbert seemingly promote your merchandise is well worth the trouble, of course. ;)
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March 13th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Nobody knows stephen colbert in iran. They are just lazy and stupid… Even the advertisement company doesn’t know him, if they did they didn’t do that…
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March 15th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Um, yeah, I’m aware they probably don’t know him. I was kidding around. You know, funny ha-ha?
March 16th, 2009 at 5:41 am
As far as I know, they have showtime in Iran (illigally) and love colbert and Jon Stewart programs! both are very famous in big cities in Iran.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Get Iranians get TCR via the web? Does TCR air in Iran? That would be really funny.
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March 11th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Oh man, he should SO cover this on his show.
And we need to get someone to translate that for us!!
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March 11th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
my husband is from iran and i have been there 4 times. i don’t speak the language very well. i wish i could go to tehran and have my pic taken next to this advertising. this is the absolute best to me! stephen is going to love this.
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March 11th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Your husband is from Iran! Can he translate this for us?!
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March 11th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
the last pic says that “all new merchandise is 20% off.”
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March 11th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
There are a few guys from Iran where I work, so if no one else gets the translation, I’ll see what I can do tomorrow. I’m intrigued!!
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March 11th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Translation Disclaimer: Been out of the country over 20 years, left when a teenager.
The first picture: In large letters it says Maxim in Farsi and the second line says (roughly translated) Apparels of this generation and the next (exact would be: Apparel generation today….and tomorrow).
Second Picture: First line is a polite word of greeting. Second line, Maxim is celebrating Nowrooz(Persian New Year)with a special 20% discount. next to Colbert picture: Special New Years Sale 20%. At bottom: For the first time to protect the (dear/valued) consumer and to break the prices, this years spring models are introduced with a 20% discount. last part repeats maxim apparels of this generation and the next.
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March 11th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Thanks for the translation!
And call me weird, but I can almost imagine Stephen saying that slogan in his newsman’s baritone. :)
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March 11th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I love that Maxim thinks Stephen is the best representative for men’s fashion for this generation and the next. :)
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March 11th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I see a possibility for a diplomatic opening here, if an American can be the symbol of fashion for Iranian men! Perhaps Stephen and Hillary can team up at last…
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March 11th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Hahha! this reminds me of the time someone found Jon Stewart’s image on something somewhere in Asia… does anyone remember where?
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March 12th, 2009 at 4:57 am
It was Vietnam! (I’m 0 for 2 above). Found the clip here:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=177432&title=Intro—Vietnam-Silk-Shop
Hilarious. And Jon expresses his wish that one day in Fallujah, we might see him (a middle-aged Jew) in front of a Subway shop. Well, we’ve got Stephen selling suits in Iran, so . . . Progress! Freedom’s on the March!
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March 11th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
TRANSLATION:
This is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. Ok so the translation goes:
“Maxim, clothes for the generation of today and tomorrow…”
“For the first time, in order to support our dear consumers and break down prices, we are announcing a 20% discount on our Spring collection!”
The discount rates are on account of Nowrooz, the traditional Persian new year which is really big in Iran (it will be on March 20th, matching up with the vernal equinox).
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March 12th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Thanks for the translation! March 20th is also the last day for the NASA voting! Coincidence?
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March 11th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Thanks for the translation. This is too funny, I wonder what motivated them to use the pix, esp. since the original image had an arrow in his forehead. Perhaps the graphic artist saw Colbert as the bridge between the “generation of today and tomorrow?”
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March 12th, 2009 at 12:00 am
I love that our Zoners came up strong with translational skills. How cool is that?!
The whole thing is so funny.
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March 12th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Thanks for the photos and the translations; that is hilarious! Still, I can’t help but wonder if this clothing store (or the general populace in Iran) knows who Stephen Colbert is, or if they just picked what they thought was a random photo of a handsome man in a suit for their store display…
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March 12th, 2009 at 1:18 am
I’m just amused that Maxim in Iran focuses on men’s clothing while Maxim here generally focuses on women wearing barely anything.
recaptchas: eact Radcliffe (I know he’s a fan of TCR!)
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March 12th, 2009 at 5:58 am
well, they can’t really show women modeling clothing because of their strict islamic laws. even their shampoo commercials have men only, because you can’t show a woman’s head of hair. so you’ll see a guy doing his best selsen-blue for the camera:)
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March 12th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I’d actually like to see Stephen do that– maybe they’ll “borrow” Stephen’s Starbucks shower footage…? (replacing the Starbucks coffee cup with a bottle of shampoo, of course) :-D
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March 12th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Way to go on the scope and the plug tonight!
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March 12th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
And of course I type scope instead of scoop.
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March 13th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
My Persian translation abilities are limited but here I give a try:
We pioneer, Maxim’s new year festival with 20% special rebate.
For the first time to support our dear customers and to press down the prices. We offer you latest spring fashion with 20% rebate.
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March 14th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Thank god others did the translation – much more sophisticated versions of the bare bones I had. To think I had the dictionary pulled up and everything! Urdu skills will only get you so far in Farsi! I loved the Colbert bit including the haft sin and everything! Kudos for being mentioned! Norouz mubaarak!
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April 24th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
The march is on and here comes heartache in the back stretch.
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