It's intriguing how advertisers use accents to market their products, and I don't mean regional UK accents, although they are used quite a lot.
A Scandinavian accent, at least to me (and Hay) instils trust, which is probably why IKEA tend to use Swedish accented voice-overs on some of their adverts. That said, if you were in Lindisfarne in the 8th century, a Scandinavian accent would have made you shit your pants.
German accents convey reliability and precision, but once conveyed aggressive warmongering, especially if that accent hissed; "Ve haff vays off making you tok."
Mediterranean accents perhaps engender hedonism. French brings sophistication. I shudder when hearing an American accent on an advert as I always think I'm being fleeced if I buy the product - they do false sincerity quite well.
I wonder whether foreign companies use British accents - even devolved regional accents - to convey any subliminal messages? The Americans do like to use British accents, although villains always seem to have British accents in American films. I suspect in future that they'll sound like Trump.
Does any foreign-based reader know of any examples of British accented voices being used to sell products?
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