Groundskeeper Willie: The Image of Scotland?
According to some recent polls findings listed by The Press Association, Scotland is not faring well, if it all, in the imaginations of America:
Forget Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor or even Rod Stewart - for many Americans, Scotland is summed up by a character from The Simpsons.
For all the promotional efforts by the Scottish Government to put the country in a good light, it is groundskeeper Willie that strikes a chord with the Americans.
Research has also found that some see Scotland as a rural backwater.
And it revealed that overseas visitors do not like the “best small country in the world” tag.
The findings came in Executive-funded research on the impact of efforts to promote Scotland in the US and elsewhere.
So, imagine that. Americans think the Scots are a bunch of backwoods types. I remember Groundskeeper Willie once remarking, “Brothers and sisters are natural enemies, like the English and the Scots, or like Scots and other Scots.” Certainly, that just adds to the problem. Of course, having a program that’s been around for more then a decade and a half and has been translated, via voice over, in many different languages doesn’t help either.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:58 am
[...] The Simpsons are filled with stereotypes, and some of them are not that constructive. For example, a recent poll found that, when asked, most people associated Scotland with Groundskeeper Willie. To the Scottish, that’s alarming, partly because their regional government has spent a lot [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
[...] a absolutely a stereotype of the Scottish as a bunch angry types. Of course, polling indicates the Willie has become the defacto image of Scots, in the mind of some Americans. But then again, one could easily argue that the Simpsons is also [...]