Filed under: Brand Suicide, Chinese Culture, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Crap Products In History, Marketing, Marketing Fail
I love China.
My time here has been one of the most exciting, interesting – and, I have to be honest, challenging – times of my life.
I will always love China and will always defend it from the prejudice they experience every day at the hands of foreign media and companies.
But there are some things here that I loathe.
Things that does the country harm.
Things that don’t actually represent what the majority think and yet validates the prejudice that other countries feel.
I wrote about one of these things recently, with the launch of ‘sports brand’, Uncle Martian.
But last week something even worse happened.
This.
I have to be honest, the moment I saw the first scene, I feared I knew what was going to happen.
And then it got worse that I ever imagined.
Apart from being utterly disgusting and distasteful, it’s an total blight on China’s international reputation and – it pains me to say it – so it should be.
I cannot believe that a nation with such strong censorship rules allowed this through.
I literally cannot fathom it.
It’s stupidity at a level that is beyond comprehension.
And what about the poor black guy in the ad? How desperate for money or fame must he have been to allow himself to be in this shit.
And the other actors … what the hell were they thinking?
And don’t even get me started on the brand who actually agreed to putting this thing out.
[This is what they said about it, which smacks of someone freaking out they’ve been “caught” by global media even though it’s pretty obvious they thought this would be a quick way for a small brand to get big attention]
I’m literally struggling to make sense of it. But I guess that’s because there is no sense to this … it’s racism on a level that beggars belief.
I hope the people who made it … approved it and commissioned it are all named, shamed and made to pay the price of their disgracefulness because what they have just done is promote hatred as well as damage China’s international reputation.
Do I think those people will care?
Probably not because otherwise they wouldn’t have done it … but I hope the Government do.
I hope the hundreds of millions of citizens who don’t think like this do.
And I hope they show it through fines and product boycotting. [They’re already expressing their disgust through social media]
Look, I’m not going to deny China has racism within the culture.
Sadly, most countries do.
Ironically, I have always felt their worst opinions are aimed at others from Asian countries rather than those from the West. In fact a black friend of mine who lived in China, once told me he felt it wasn’t that China didn’t like black people, they just don’t like anything different and to them, he’s just different.
Of course that is no excuse for this shit nor does it make it any better.
Frankly I am devastated about this. Devastated that these attitudes still exist. Devastated there are people who don’t think it is wrong to make an ad featuring this as their ‘storyline’. And devastated China has just taken a backward step in the minds of many across the World.
I would love to meet the people who did this and commissioned this and literally smash them in the fucking face.
They’re beyond racist. They’re stupid.
But then, when a country that claims to represent the Free World can have a presidential candidate who is the antithesis of it, I fear stupid is winning.
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Just to make sure no one is stupid enough to suggest only the Chinese are racist, watch this …
Yes, I know it reinforces the misguided belief China just copies what others have done rather than create it’s own thing, but that’s obviously, not the point I want to make.
Racism is everywhere and unless we fundamentally deal with it, society is on the fast track to devolution. A good way to start might be to get everyone to watch this.
Then stop Donald Trump.
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PS: I found it fascinating than in the recent Austrian elections, the narrow loser – a far right candidate – took the loss with grace. Despite supporters claiming he had been cheated, he knocked that talk on the head. I don’t – and never will – support his viewpoints, but I respect his acceptance. Now if only he could do that beyond just an election result. Trump take note.
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I’m appalled. The response from the brand representative makes it worse. Do they think people will believe the issue of race never came up in the making of the ad? I am certain if a Western brand made a commercial using a negative view of Asian’s, the excuse “no one had considered it racist during production” would not wash with the Chinese community, and nor should it.
Comment by George May 30, 2016 @ 6:29 amThe guy working for the washing powder company is so stupid I bet he thinks the West are being racist by picking on him.
Comment by DH May 30, 2016 @ 6:50 amYes, I must admit I found his rationale for it quite surprising. I appreciate there’s not much else he could say, but maybe just admitting a moment of massive misguided stupidity would have gone a long way.
I even think a lot of the people here would have appreciated that level of honesty – though I also can tell he’s trying to make it a West vs China thing, to garner local support, which will be interesting to see how it plays out … though I also accept that the level of ‘awareness’ of this ad is very very small here, which leads me to believe it was leaked to the international media rather than them specifically picking it up. Maybe.
How’s that for a China conspiracy theory …
Comment by Rob May 30, 2016 @ 7:38 amIf Trump somehow gets in, this situation will only get worse. His comments over Obama’s visit to Japan are disgraceful but millions think he’s standing up for America. His victory would be the downfall of America.
Comment by George May 30, 2016 @ 6:31 amAnd now everyone is ganging up against Hillary which is like Trump’s dreams coming true.
Comment by DH May 30, 2016 @ 6:48 amYep … and the Bernie supporters aren’t helping by encouraging the vote to go on rather than uniting and making this a much more focused fight against a man who is a menace to global stability, let alone America’s.
Comment by Rob May 30, 2016 @ 7:40 amThat’s fucking bad.
Comment by Billy Whizz May 30, 2016 @ 6:38 amThreatening to smash their face in doesn’t really work with the photo saying stop the hate. Just saying.
Comment by DH May 30, 2016 @ 6:47 amwhat the fucking fuck. and those fucking italians have a fuckload to answer to as well.
Comment by andy@cynic May 30, 2016 @ 7:10 amSomeone actually said to me “the World is far too PC”. Unsurprisingly, he also thinks Jeremy Clarkson is a genius.
Comment by Rob May 30, 2016 @ 7:41 amclarkson is trumps english fucking cousin.
Comment by andy@cynic May 30, 2016 @ 7:59 amIt is impossible to view this as anything other than racist. The same applies to the Italian ad and everything Donald Trump says and stands for. Your last sentence of the main post sums things up perfectly Rob.
Comment by Pete May 30, 2016 @ 7:20 amA very good write up Rob.
Comment by Alec Couros May 30, 2016 @ 8:40 amA repulsive commercial copied from a repulsive commercial.
Comment by Lee Hill May 31, 2016 @ 1:52 am[…] China showing that for all their progress, a lot of it is only on the surface … here and here. […]
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