Deluded Shanghai expats and the modelling gigs they get

Last month, we highlighted to you a post by Adam Minter of Shanghai Scrap in which he laments over the sorry state of expat advertising after spotting a full page print ad taken up by the Dragonfly spa chain in (what seemed like) every English language magazine in Shanghai. The ad featured a Caucasian man waxing himself with a 'clean' strip while his right hand (what looked rather like a chicken claw) sported multi-coloured nails that were supposed to be a "tribute to the Olympic rings". The campaign became the talk of the town, but not in the way Dragonfly had hoped for. As it turned out, the ad had the effect of freaking out just about everyone in town who saw it (and possibly up north in Beijing too).

Commenters on Shanghai Scrap mostly thought this was "Frank from Arch" (who really is "Frank from A Future Perfect" — long story what transpired there). Turns out they were all wrong. The star of the ad campaign is a heretofore unknown 25 year old American named Daniel Bennett. This month's That's Shanghai follows up with an interview with him, aptly entitled "When metrosexuality goes very, very wrong". Here are a few gems from that interview:

"I hail from Los Angeles and I suppose that's why I'm naturally comfortable in front of the camera and with my liberal lifestyle... I needed persuading to do this shoot, but once there, my creative juices started flowing and there was no turning back."

"I'm not married: I guess that means I'm single, right? I don't think my sex appeal could have risen any higher than it was before the advert hit the streets. The picture only acted to bring more people into the fray of my sexual robustness. What I know from experience is this: Somebody doesn't see an ad for a restaurant and think, 'I think I'll eat there tonight.' But, when somebody sees an ad with a sexy model they think, 'I want to be with him, and I want a massage right now!"

"I definitely think this poster, and others are a sign of the city's liberal culture. People are finally being allowed to be who they want to be and act how they want to act."

"I'm deeply offended by those who have made accusations about a Photoshop job. It was a two-step process. One was the waxing of the chest, and then we placed a new 'clean' strip for the picture. There's a decent amount of hair on that chest but we thought it would be best to spare the public the gory details of the waxing process."