One of the things that annoys the hell out of me is how some agencies and clients think Chinese culture – especially Chinese youth culture – is so predictable and easily definable.
Of course in public they might have another story [though that’s not as often as you may think], but one look at the work they put out doesn’t just show how they think everyone is pretty much the same, but doesn’t even develop.
We hate this.
Actually, we despise this.
To counter this myopic and – let’s face it – prejudiced view, we produce a quarterly paper called Luandun.
The whole purpose of this paper is not to say we know what’s going on in the country, it’s basically to cause some conflict in the heads of marketers & agency people.
It’s to make them rethink what they think they know.
It’s to make them question what is happening across the country.
It’s to make them wonder if they’re really connecting with their audience.
It’s to make them think whether the beautifully produced books they get from the multinational agencies tell the whole truth, or the bits that make them feel better.
By no means are we claiming we know everything that’s going on in China – who the hell can – but like our Boomtown project and countless other little experiments we do … our goal is to highlight that approaching the Chinese audience – especially the Chinese youth audience – with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality is not just wrong.
But stupid.
