A 60-year-old Shanghai man has been duped out of his savings after responding to a street advertisement for a healthy man to impregnate a rich woman in return for 1 million RMB. As if this wasn't humiliating enough, his friend has also taken him to court in order to retrieve the 6,000RMB he contributed towards the 'investment'. more ›

Simmering discontent among Hong Kongers with travellers and birth tourists from the mainland has reached a new flashpoint after members of the HKGolden.com forum raised more than HK$100,000 to take up a full-page advertisement in Apple Daily featuring the image of a locust overlooking the city skyline of Hong Kong. more ›

The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) may move to ban all cut-in advertisements during soap operas on all TV channels, including CCTV. more ›

more ›

We promise you we have our best people working on this. A few photos of what appears to be an In-N-Out ad taken in Shanghai have spurred speculation online that we could be going it 'animal style' in the foreseeable future. Update: We are hearing from multiple sources close to the company that this ad is, unfortunately, absolutely fake. But we'll take a fake In-n-Out over none, right? more ›

Life's not easy if you're Edison Chen (陈冠希), the Hong Kong singer-actor that was embroiled in the Chinese world's biggest sex scandal ever. There are always new sex scandals to fend off, pesky reporters to deal with and people blaming you for other people's divorce. more ›

We have no idea how Chinese telecoms giant Huawei intends to conquer the world with this new advertisement, but from the looks of it, they really might as well rename their new tablet LamePad. Fortunately for them, though, they had the intelligence not to go down the way of Acer's by going head on with the iPad. It would have been a complete disaster: more ›

With no open operating system, no high resolution display, no Dolby Surround Sound, no Flash, no microSD, no USB port, why the hell would you want an iPad? That's the question Taiwanese electronics giant Acer is asking consumers in a campaign for its newly released tablet, the Iconia Tab A500 -- which we're happy to report is quite a decent tablet after we tried it hands-on at a store recently at MetroCity. The below ad, from Taiwan, features two men in a , or crosstalk, trying to convince you that Acer is the better choice. more ›

To be filed in the just plain weird folder: Chinese underwear company DEU wants to help you create gigantic, adjustable cleavage. This ad for a boob clamp/corset thing goes on for 5 whole minutes -- why anybody watches it from start to finish with that annoying "doo doo doo doo" soundtrack in the background must be because because it's filled with lots and lots of boobies! Actually, all it is, is repeat shots of boobs getting smushed together and trussed up (everybody becomes happy "waahhh") and then undoing the corset, boobs fall back apart ("awww" sad face). So simple, and yet so mesmerizing. more ›

While Aftershock, the movie about the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976, has been excessively popular, it's also been excessively pumped full of advertising - including 20 minutes of adverts before the movie even started. One woman was so mad, she sued. more ›

Guangdong-based underwear company Jealousy International has been selling their Diana brand of underwear for years now. But to commemorate the anniversary of Princess Diana's death, they rolled out a new ad campaign featuring a half-naked Diana doppleganger playing a cello. Unfortunately, a British citizen was right there to capture it. more ›

Sleek, fast car, check. 3G capabilities, check. Attractive people (one male, one female, both not Chinese), check. A clear jingle? Er.... more ›

But will anyone really buy this?
more ›

Hu Ge, the Shanghai unknown who shot to fame after parodying Chen Kaige's The Promise with a story about a steamed bun, seems to have settled in pretty well to his new role as parodyist for hire. Besides coming out with his own 30 minute spoofy action work, he's gotten some commercial requests on the side. more ›

We never realized Chiang Kai-shek was in the business of selling trousers, and we were equally surprised that they would be STAMINA trousers since, well, it's not like the guy had that much staying power. At least not in China. Hey-yo! more ›

City Weekend brings us murmurs that the Shanghai government may soon crack down on those taxi televisions that broadcast ads nonstop (with nary an off button in sight). Declarations by the local government and officials from the World Expo Environment Improvement campaign hinted that taxi commercials could fall into the category of visual and audio pollution. more ›

Shanghai-based wool clothing brand, Hengyuanxiang (恒源祥) has scored yet another epic advertising fail that is destined to be a top case study in the "What Not To Do in Advertising 101" course with this Chinese New Year commercial (aired between 25-31 Jan this year) that promises to rape the eyes and ears of its audience. The company, one of the official sponsors of the Beijing Olympics, unleashed a torrent of (well-deserved) criticism from netizens with its Year of the Goat television commercial last year, igniting a public furore so huge the ad was eventually pulled. Watch this commercial above and then watch last year's commercial at your own risk. You'll find that things have actually improved. We really can't wait to see what's in store for us next year. more ›

Zhuhai Police sexes up its own image in a snazzy new television commercial designed to attract more recruits. The ad was produced by the propaganda office of the department. more ›

We pass this billboard (almost) every day, between Shanghaiist headquarters and the gym. For a long time it featured Barack Obama on the cover of the Chinese version of Men's Health. Recently a Twitter user named Shaquille O'Neal has taken the president elect's place. It's an ad for Li Ning basketball shoes, Shaq's brand of choice for a couple years now. (You might remember the real Li Ning from such Olympic opening ceremonies as Beijing 2008.) more ›

Advertising Agency: O&M Beijing, China more ›

China takes a lot of crap for failing to get a second opinion on the English they throw into circulation, often leading to amusing f*ck ups like this and this. It turns out, however, that this knife cuts both ways. more ›

Danwei points us to the funniest thing we've seen in a long while. We're not sure if this was actually produced for television or just the internet, but this infomercial for a Chinese magic pill which claims to help cure 快男 or "fast men" (a play on Hunan TV's "Super Boys" talent show) of male erectile dysfunction sho' cracked us up!
more ›

Eric Hu points us to this great TV ad by Chinese PC maker Lenovo entitled "Grandma-proof" that's getting forwarded around by his colleagues. We're not sure where this ad was aired but it does make us wonder why they don't run similarly ingenious ads back on their home turf in China? more ›

This cute little ad was created for Mentos by ad agency BBH Shanghai [h/t to Punk Planning] more ›

Less than a month after airing this commercial featuring Richard Gere driving the new Fiat Delta from Hollywood to Tibet, Italian automaker Fiat has been forced to withdraw the ad, and issue a statement extending its "apologies to the Government of the People's Republic of China and to the Chinese people". Readers of this blog (a group which no doubt excludes anyone from Fiat or their agency) will be aware that Richard Gere is a vocal proponent of Tibetan autonomy/independence. Earlier this month, when Fiat's Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne first showed the ad to journalists, he was reported to have said in no uncertain terms:

"I obviously like it."

Fans of tight-fitting non-branded clothing rejoice! Following the much-heralded invasion of H&M and (the slightly less heralded) C&A, dedicated followers of fashion have the arrival of another Western brand to look forward to, after American Apparel announced that they will be hitting the streets of Shanghai in the next month or so. Location details have not yet been released but the chain is currently negotiating a lease for a downtown store in Shanghai, as well as planning to open in Beijing and Suzhou. more ›