Next week there will be a post about scam advertising.
For those who don’t know what it means, it basically refers to bullshit certain agencies put out in a bid to look creative despite the fact it only runs once [often in some regional market where the cost – and audience – is minute] and the ‘idea’ is done for a client with no money and no chance of ever being able to bring it to market at scale.
But that’s next week, because today I’m going to talk about business scam.
The bullshit certain opportunists do in a bid to ride a commercial opportunity despite bringing nothing new to the table.
And I mean nothing new.
Because they basically steal from those who have done it well before them.
Have a look at this …
You might think that logo looks familiar – and it does – except it isn’t for Under Armour, oh no, it’s for China’s newest sports brand, Uncle Martian.
I kid you fucking not.
But it gets worse than just ‘borrowing’ from UA, they borrow from everyone – NIKE, New Balance, NYC and even Captain bloody America – which you can check out for yourself by clicking here to see images from their launch event.
I hoped China had got past this sort of behaviour.
It seemed like it.
Sure, many were still being ‘inspired’ by other, more successful brands … but whereas once they stopped at duplication, now we were seeing many develop their own innovations, things that moved them from copycats to creators to, arguably, pioneers.
But Uncle Martian have just shown the bad old ways still exist.
The ones who look for shortcuts.
The ones who don’t care about authenticity or quality or individuality.
The ones who do it just because they think they can get away with it.
But what makes it even worse is that this sort of behaviour doesn’t just affect Uncle Martian, but all of China.
What the people behind this copycat brand have done, is give everyone and anyone who mistrusts China, even more ammunition … from Donald Trump to, sadly, a shitload of people from China.
I know the Government have a policy of wanting to keep revenue in the country rather than see it flow out to international brands, but letting this sort of thing happen is hurting them far more than they may imagine.
But worse, it adds another obstacle for young Chinese entrepreneurs to try and overcome, because they will either be prejudiced against by venture capitalists, or told they should be copying rather than creating to drive the quickest return on investment possible.
I know I am not from here, but the launch of Uncle Martian has utterly disappointed me, because frankly China deserves better than this and is way, way, way better than this.