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peasant
Reacher
Joined: July 24, 2004
Posts: 323
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 Posted:
Jan 24, 2005 - 09:49 AM |
 
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| Post subject: ads war? |
A few ads for Japanese goods recently caused uproar in Chinese media and internet circle. One of them is for Nippon Paint. As the picture shows here, the dragon slipped down from one of the two columns in the pavilion and the other still holds. It might imply the paint is so good and the surface is so smooth after painting with Nippon Paint that nothing could hold there. The ad had to be withdrawn because of the wide spread prοtest. The critics say the dragon is the symbol of the Chinese people and it is insulting and malicious to suggest the dragon, the totem of the Chinese would fall down because of the Japanese paint. The producer of the ad denied any intention to insult but apologized for the insensitivity.
Then two ads for Toyota irritated many, a Toyota SUV Land Cruiser Prado (they translated Prado as Badao, to me it doesn’t appear to be a good translation since it means in Chinese overbearing, high-handed, hegemony etc) is passing two stone lions. One of them lifted his paw to solute and the other bowed to it. The words read, “Overbearing, you have to show your respect to it.” Some people made the connection with Marco Polo Bridge (Chinese name: Lu Gou Bridge) outside of Beijing on which there are many stone lions. In July of 1937, a Japanese army soldier, Private Kikujiro Shimura was missing near that place and the incident let to the escalation of the war. It was called 7/7 incident in history. Then in the other ad, a Toyota land Cruiser is towing a Chinese truck (East Wind, which is often used as military truck. The rifle, binocular and other stuff in the ad suggested it’s a military truck). Many considered the ads insulting, and Toyota China apologized and pulled out the ads while saying it didn’t have the intention to insult the Chinese.
(In the Chinese BBS, people are having a heated debate on the above-mentioned ads. While many appear to be angry, the others say some people are overly sensitive. For example, some say it’s too far-fetched to connect the stone lions on the ads to those on the Marco Polo Bridge. Others contend that lions are in many countries’ national emblems and they asked should they feel insulted too).
Then a Chinese advertising company designed this ad in which a guy is shooting the sun. According to Chinese legend, in ancient time, there were ten suns in the sky scorching the earth. This hero called Hou Yi shot down 9 of them and saved the earth. The ad isn’t designed for anyone but the designer (a well-known one in the circle) suggested it is suitable for quite a few well-known companies by changing the words on it. Japan’s name in Chinese or in kanji starts with a character meaning the sun and it’s quite obvious what the ad is referring to. |
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peasant
Reacher
Joined: July 24, 2004
Posts: 323
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Jan 24, 2005 - 10:09 AM |
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Edgewood
FooSlinger
Joined: Jan 28, 2004
Posts: 3906
Location: Colonial Shanghai
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Jan 24, 2005 - 01:28 PM |
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And of course the Nike ad, which led to Nike being threatened with a national ban in China.
The ad showed some basketballer beating a cartoon martial arts character.
Apparently it, too, was insulting to China.
It's a clear indication of a deep-seated inferiority complex, IMHO. |
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Conlige suspectos semper habitos |
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littlefox
Fire-eater
Joined: Nov 23, 2003
Posts: 2773
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Jan 24, 2005 - 02:53 PM |
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Which ad you are talking about that led Nike being threatened with a national ban in China? Or you are referring to the law case between Xiaoxiao and Nike? |
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Ah, the ubiquitous idiots... |
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Edgewood
FooSlinger
Joined: Jan 28, 2004
Posts: 3906
Location: Colonial Shanghai
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Jan 24, 2005 - 03:50 PM |
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No I don't think it related to a court case. It was simply an innocent advertisement for television. |
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Conlige suspectos semper habitos |
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littlefox
Fire-eater
Joined: Nov 23, 2003
Posts: 2773
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Jan 24, 2005 - 04:41 PM |
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I couldn't recall I ever saw this ad on TV as you described. Maybe because I don't watch TV much. Anyone else saw the ad mentioned by Edgy? |
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Ah, the ubiquitous idiots... |
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Nick-la
Wonder Wit
Joined: July 19, 2003
Posts: 3675
Location: Wasted on this site
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Jan 24, 2005 - 07:56 PM |
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It was a basic TV ad LF.
They played it every single ad again and again and again in half-time on Football matches.
And it was in international news that chinese gov banned it because it featured a CARTOON asian martial arts guy getting "humiliated" by a basketball player - what happened is the player just scored a basket.
To be honest... bearing in mind I am not usually 'sensitive' - I really can believe that the japanese might have had something in mind to p1ss off the chinese. Not that I blame them, as the opportunity must have presented mischief.
I also believe that the Japanese heads who designed the whole thing are so clever - therefore I believe that they made ads VERY SLIGHTLY referring to chinese-japanese stuff, so the PETTY chinese moaned and moaned, thus the international world would se just how petty they are over such aged and such vague references to anything at all. |
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I'm surrounded by idiots. |
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peasant
Reacher
Joined: July 24, 2004
Posts: 323
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Jan 25, 2005 - 09:33 AM |
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Nick-la, if you meant they deliberately did this to get more attention, I am afraid it’s not a very good strategy for the well-established companies like Toyota. It might work for a start-up company that desperately needs publicity, even the negative ones, but I dont think it work to the benefit of Toyota from business point of view. I tend to think they are innocent ads since what good will they do for their business, though the producers of ads could do a better job in anticipating the possible response in using things like dragon, or suggesting it’s a military truck. I still could not see any problem in that one with stone lions though. In addition to that, I think the designers of the ads are most likely the Chinese, though of course, the ads had to be approved by Toyota people.
Edgewood, I think most people are with you when you say it’s an indication of deep-rooted inferiority complex. I can’t say for others but I think HC, Serend and others who might disagree with you on other issues also agree with you on this one. I also would like to point out that many Chinese in the Chinese forums also said similar things. |
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serend
FooJay
Joined: Aug 31, 2004
Posts: 1712
Status: Offline
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Jan 25, 2005 - 10:16 AM |
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I have seen these ads before. Here's what I think.
1. The Nike ad is quite harmless. The controversy has to do with portraying the Kungfu figure as a clown. It is largely caused by difference in cultural perspectives. In US, a clown is not really someone to be despised. American children grow up being entertained by clowns at their birthday parties and have a fun association with them. In Chinese society... well, clowns have a different status. Yes, Stephen Chow is sort of a clown, but he wins in the end in every movie, right? So he's a clownish winner; that's fine. But a clownish loser? Nooooo.... I am not with Chinese on this one, but hey, Nike wants to make money in China, so follow the rule of your customers, even though you may think the customers are over-reacting, eh?
2. Nippon paint. I don't know what the fuss is about, either. So a dragon slides down the pillar---I really don't dig this dragon fetish of Chinese: why do you want to worship a hostile, malicious creature that hides itself in clouds? This is like the Celts, and we all know how THEY ended... But seriously, I see no evidence that it's made to be aggressive and meant to offend.
3. The Toyota ad with the SUV on Lu Gou Bridge. Now that's a classic fccked-up ad of all times, straight out of the "WTF Are They Thinking" and "WTF Are They Smoking" department!
So many elements of the ad seem to be calculated to insult and to provoke: the site (where the Japanese aggressioin started on 7/7/1937), the submissive lions, the Toyota chaining Chinese military in a Romanstyled Triumph parade... accident? Who's Toyota kidding?
This tells me two things: (1) confirms my worst opinion of the Japanese corporate decision-making process. The static age-based and chum-based hierarchy breeds a senior management that's totally out of touch with both the present and the past. How did this stragtegically important campaign go throught the review at HQ?
(2) Some Chinese are ready to do anything to make a living. With the high-strung nationalism in China, surely the Chinese management and employees in Toyota-China can't fail to recognize the significance of the ad? AND the Chinese ad agency who co-worked on this ad? Are they so scared of offending their Japanese bosses that they trample their feelings and conscience underfoot? Shame on them. I would recommend that Toyota-China's whole PR department get fired. |
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serend
FooJay
Joined: Aug 31, 2004
Posts: 1712
Status: Offline
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Jan 25, 2005 - 10:41 AM |
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The ad of Hou'yi shooting the suns: it's pretty vindicative and may not reflect well on the image of Chinese, but it is such a clever idea---but I bet very few Chinese, not even the ad people who designed it, recognized how clever it is!
Remember Zhang Tai-yan, 章太炎， the great Chinese scholar and nationalist in early 20th Century? When he's forced to go on exile by the Manchus, he stayed in Japan for years. That's after the 1895 war, when Japanese society was still giddy from their victory over their giant neighbor. So naturally some young Japanese upstarts knocked at Zhang's door with some provocative "discourse". On such occasions, Zhang kept his mouth closed, and kept writing the following quotes (from Lie-tzu, 列子，I believe) in Chinese, in front of his visitors: "Hou'yi taught everything to his pupil, Feng'meng （逢蒙）, only to be treacherously murdered by the latter"......
That's the same Hou'yi in the proposed ad. The point was that China taught everything to Japan (not quite true), never did them wrong (true), but was rewarded with treachery and murder (true).
BTW: the great Chinese Enlightenment scholar，Chou Tsuo-ren, 周作人，made a similar comment somewhere to this effect: China to Japan is like Greece to Rome, only that Romans did not rape and butcher their mentors the way Japanese did. |
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Henry_Chinaski
Board Lord
Joined: Aug 16, 2003
Posts: 5025
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Jan 25, 2005 - 01:32 PM |
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Great posts serend. Very good stuff man. |
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Henry_Chinaski
Board Lord
Joined: Aug 16, 2003
Posts: 5025
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Jan 25, 2005 - 01:34 PM |
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And yes peasant I agree in part with Edgewood on this one: there is some inferiority complex sprayed in the air. |
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fukuman
Wonder Wit
Joined: Sep 18, 2003
Posts: 3699
Status: Offline
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Jan 25, 2005 - 10:14 PM |
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i am also in uproar. i read, only today of a clover juction. thus the symbol of my country is somewhere not worth staying, but somewhere to change directions and leave immediately.
i have also heard the defining feature of my country "the bog" being used as a colloquialism for the toilet. the symbolism hardly needs explianing.
further yet, the omni-present referral to "shennanigans" is , of course, a referral to Irish being lay-about, drunkard, violent , rabble-rousers.
as an up-standing member of the community , i resent these vile charicatures and stereotypes put upon my people.
and dont any of u even think im taking the "mick" |
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Edgewood
FooSlinger
Joined: Jan 28, 2004
Posts: 3906
Location: Colonial Shanghai
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Jan 25, 2005 - 11:47 PM |
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turty tree anna turd pertaters |
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