Week Around the Ists
Interview: Coco Zhao, from jazz to M. Butterfly
This ad by French car-maker Citroen reads:
Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's.Needless to say, the ad invoked the fury of the Chinese community in Spain and Citroen was forced to issue an apology, though we bet their ad agency are secretly congratulating themselves for grabbing worldwide attention this way.
It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroen the revolution never stops.
We are once more going to put in motion all the machinery of our technological ability, in order to repeat in 2008 the successes obtained in previous years.
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This is sick. Mao isn't even a religious figure, he is a disgusting, fat, mass murdering pedophile. Just goes to show how weak and pandering Europe is, not to mention how thin skinned the overseas chinese populations are about their butt wipe leaders.
I do think that Citroen gave in a bit too easily. If they felt it was really causing offense, they should have pulled the ad. However, they should have made a stronger case for themselves at the same time. It would not be hard to publish, at the same time as the apology, examples of creative uses of Mao's image by Chinese artists, or shown several images of Chinese-made products that whimsically use his image. Who hasn't seen Mao's face on a flashing button or a cheap, plastic watch?
Nowadays, some Chinese people hang Mao's pic on their car's front mirror, OR they paste Mao on front of their home doors. they think it can keep them safe and secure. It happens in inner land and big cities such as Shanghai as well.
Will British use Elithbath I's pic distored for ad, or W. Churchill's? Will American use Washiongton's pic DISTORTED in the such case.
The key point in this event is that Mao's image has been DISTORTED in this ad.
Otherwise, it is perfect OK to use him, I donot think Chinese people will mind at all. they will just smile and admire Citroen's creativity.
If any Westerner saw Elizabeth, Churchill or Washington pictures DISTORTED, they probably wouldn't care.
Can someone explain what this means? I don't get this advertisement at all. Does that facial expression mean something in Spain? It looks like disdain. Or did the car fart? Or is it just some idiot who thinks the combination of Ceasar, leaders and revolution leads to Mao? Confusing no matter what. All PR is good PR I guess.