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Yesterday, in a taxi, I came across a commercial for WildAid playing on one of those TouchMedia taxi screens. It starred Yao Ming and was about how, if people could see what really happened to sharks for their sharks fin soup, maybe they wouldn't order it next time. I'm not sure if that actually would impact the majority of people who order sharks fin - Chinese people tend to be pretty sanguine about the slaughtering and butchering of animals - but it was a decent commercial nevertheless. So here it is.
Well here it is kind of. Unfortunately, it seems this commercial is so new (not really, it was released in December 2009) that it's not on Youku or Tudou. It is on the WildAid site, but that's not embeddable. I've screenshotted it for you below:
Here, some waiter has the nerve to serve Yao Ming a bowl of Sharks Fin Soup in what looks like an aquarium themed restaurant. That reminds me of some joke my dad made about the Shanghai Aquarium being an all-you-can-eat buffet, but I digress. Yao looks to the side and sees...
WHAT THE WHAT? Who threw that in there? And how have none of the other diners noticed? Yao's not happy and that shark is finless! FINLESS! See, close up.
Oh, now the rest of the restaurant has noticed. And they are... Concerned? Curious? Nonplussed?
Yao says no. The rest of the restaurant follows suit. And Yao gives us some parting words: "When the buying stops, the killing can too."
I joke, but actually, it's kind of cute - and I think it's great to see Yao continuously promoting this cause. Anyway, it's not the only commercial Yao's done for the organization. In this next one, he protects an elephant by stopping a bullet with his bare hands.
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