Insert Better Voice Here

Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutomb, better known as Dikembe Mutombo, rose to fame as a star center for the Georgetown Hoyas and several teams in the National Basketball Association. His professional career spanned nearly two decades before ending in 2009. During this time, Mutombo became known as a stellar defender and shot-blocker.

Originally from Africa, a great deal was always made about Mutombo’s intelligence and his ability to speak English, French and several other languages. I don’t know about his fluency in French but his deep voice and thick accent made his English difficult to take in long doses. And, judging by this recent interview, it still is:


I remember a discussion in a communications class back in college that pertained to athletes endorsing products and services. The following Charles Schwab ad that features Mutombo came up in the discussion:


If you can’t view the video, be sure to click here. It’s priceless.

During the class discussion, I pointed out that Mutombo's voice had been dubbed over. The silence and blank stares from my professor and classmates indicated that they did not believe me - probably because I had never contributed anything useful to any of our previous discussions. Unfortunately, YouTube wasn't around yet and I had no way of proving my claim.

Even though the Schwab ad is still not available on YouTube, I finally found the grainy copy that I posted above. During my search (is it weird that I've searched for several years?), I also came across this article that gives a little background to the voice swap.

Apparently, Mutombo wasn't informed that his voice didn't make the final version of the ad. He first became aware of the decision when he saw the Schwab ad air during the World Series.

Mutombo was quoted in the article as saying, “I was mad. I heard some Nigerian guy talking.”

It’s clear why the change was made and how it was successfully pulled off in 1999. However, it’s interesting to consider if such a move could be made in 2014. Avenues like social media give us inside access to celebrities and athletes all the time - we know a lot about them, especially the sound of their voices. I don’t think advertisers could pull such a fast one on today’s public.

Top photo credit: ESPN