Results tagged “advertising”

We've talked about some of the sillier commercials we've seen on Chinese television, but every now and then, one comes along that actually wows us. This one, by CCTV, is pretty stunning and hopefully will set the bar for tv ads to come. A dollop of ink is dropped into water and transforms into various Chinese painting staples, before moving on to some of the country's achievements and a shot of the Shanghai skyline in watercolor. Cool!

OOOOH NOOO. Can we say worst idea ever?! Some Shanghai karaoke bars are considering putting commercials between songs as a way to get some extra moolah to pay for music royalties. The idea, as with most bad ideas relating to music, came from the very company entrusted by music copyright owners to collect royalties. At least the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau has been skeptical, saying consumers can complain if they feel their interests are being violated by annoying ads during time they already paid for. Please, Partyworld and Haoledi: DON'T DO IT. Source: Shanghai Daily

This latest ad has managed to shake ever our most jaded "This is China" hearts. A hospital in Chongqing is offering half price abortions if you show your student ID.

Chinese sports brand up-and-comer Li Ning has opened its first store outside of the country, though it didn't go far. The newest themed flagship shop will be in Singapore's ION Orchard Mall. The theme: badminton paradise, which will focus on the sport's equipment and maintenance. According to Li Ning CFO Nicholas Chong, "Badminton is a popular, prevalent and influential sport in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Expansion into this market not only shows our determination to become the sports brand synonymous with badminton, it also lays a solid foundation for the group's expansion into overseas markets." Considering how badminton players tend to appear on billboards here with the same badassedness as basketball and football players in the U.S., we guess that's not a bad strategy to hedge on after all. Source: Brand Republic

Yes, it's been a very serious day, which means we need to wash it down tonight with something a little more silly - like this ad about making money multiply. Hopefully you're already at home because this vid could be considered a little NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Those crazy German ad companies - what will they think of next? Also, watch for a Chairman Mao cameo near the end. All we can say is... Don't do it! He'll either confiscate or tear up any money babies you make after the first one!

So now not only are you not allowed to pose as a fake doctor (sadly killing off most expat men's chances of appearing on Chinese television), you're also not allowed to endorse a product without knowing if it actually works. A law that makes celebrities liable if their endorsed products turn out to be fake or dangerous has gone into affect today. According to the newest interpretation by the Supreme People's Court, “If these people know the nature of fake and inferior drugs but still help promote them, they will be dealt with as accomplices of producers and dealers of the products.” It doesn't really state how the courts plan on making sure celebrities knew their products were harmful before they started endorsing them, which calls into question how effective the law will actually be. Depending on how far the courts take this, it'll either have a chilling effect on celebrities appearing at all on ads, or everything will stay exactly the same. Source: China Daily

   

If you've been in Shanghai for long enough you will notice that China Mobile generally has a great deal of outdoor advertising, from billboards to those annoying little screens mounted on the headrest of taxis. As we are draw close to having the conveniences of high speed internet in the palm of our hands, China Mobile has reverted to an older form of advertising on East Nanjing Road.

Definitely welcome news to our ears, eyes and headspaces - the televisions streaming constant looping advertisements in the back of Shanghai's taxis are thankfully on the out.

Most social networks and web businesses generate their revenues from online advertising - but it looks like some do it much better than others.

If you watched Super Bowl XLIII in China, you missed out on what is often the best part of the show--the commercials that advertisers pay obscene amounts of money to air during the game. You can see them all and vote for your favorites here.

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.

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.

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.

Get it on with Durex.

   

Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG Life, Shanghai, China

Shanghai lawmakers are taking Chinese tobacco giant Chung Hwa to task for its ubiquitous billboard ads that carry the four Chinese characters “爱我中华“ (Ai Wo Zhonghua, or "Loving my China"), and feature an image of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, along with the warning that "Smoking can damage your health". Zhonghua (or Chung Hwa in Wade-Giles) refers to China and the Shanghai Tobacco Corporation which produces the Chung Hwa brand, has maintained that its slogan "promoted patriotism and was therefore a public service campaign". City lawmakers, however, are not buying the argument and are now calling for all tobacco ads to be "banned in line with the law".

Beginning Jan 1, Mengniu, one of China's leading dairy firms, has launched a new advertising campaign entitled "Happy Niu Year" which is scheduled to run on television, in print and online, all the way through to Feb 9. The word "Niu" is a play on the Chinese word "牛" which means cow (as well as ox and bull) and this year happens to be the Year of the Bull. This is the first major ad campaign by a Chinese dairy company since the melamine scandal struck late last year. The television commercial for this campaign follows after the jump

Littleredbook.cn is a promising new blog from Shanghai-based ad agency bloodyamazing. Their mission: "Our mission is to make the world of advertising & creative in China more accessible to companies outside the Middle Kingdom. You'll find here the most relevant information for researching and eventually launching your own China campaigns."

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.)

   

Advertising Agency: O&M Beijing, China

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).

With political arrows still being shot back and forth between Beijing and Dharamsala, China has been panning out its efforts to win the propaganda battle over Tibet, sending teams of Tibetologists to Finland and Italy to 'educate' academics and students on the history and modern development of Tibet. Realising that influencing scholars and historians is not enough, China has also taken the battle into the online arena to reach people like you and I.

Fans of TV show "Mad Men" might like to picture a scene where the boys (and girl) at Sterling Cooper try and come up with a way of selling Baijiu to non-Chinese drinkers.

The organizers behind the 6th Li Yue Long Men Young Creatives Competition (鲤跃龙门亲年创意人列赛) have a surefire way of enticing young, creative talent into the big 4A agencies such as BBDO and JWT: appeal to the better, hornier side of their nature.

From Danwei:

This series of spoof Sanlu ads is getting scrubbed from video sharing sites. Here's a copy from Ku6. The country bumpkin voice-over parodies the original ads, saying that Sanlu powder guarantees kidney stones.

Video: polskipekin follows three groups of artists around Beijing and asks them for their take on what it means to be painting in a rapidly evolving China [h/t Jeremy Goldkorn of Danwei]

Carrefour is in a bit of trouble again — but not the same sort of trouble as what happened a few months ago. This time, its Nanjing outlet has been caught by regulators for "illegally" using the Olympic rings and the Five Friendlies together with its own logo in the store. A store manager clarified that the store had done so to show their support for the Beijing Olympics, but "clearly there were a few things that we failed to consider and if so, we are happy to correct them". As a regulator explained, every instance of the use of an Olympic emblem has to be approved by BOCOG and no approval had been granted to Carrefour. Earlier this year, shortly after the anti-Carrefour riots, the French retailer's Beijing outlets were also quick to "show support" for the Beijing Olympics by having their staff wear caps with the Olympic rings — only to get rapped soon after for "illegal usage".

There's no Olympic medal for sports apparel marketing, but the race this summer between the category's top two brands is hotly contested. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, Nike and Adidas are employing very different strategies to court the Chinese market.

Well it was in 1967, anyway. Courtesy of Popsucker, here's a 41-year-old ad from the Rice Council of America that's about as un-PC as you can get.

A new ad campaign for Amnesty International has Chinese Netizens seeing red, according to The Wall Street Journal. The campaign, designed by TBWA Worldwide, features Chinese athletes being tortured by Chinese authorities. It reads at the bottom: "After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on." WSJ reports bloggers demanding the boycott of all TBWA ads, as well as suggesting that all Chinese employees at TBWA resign from the company. Amnesty International allowed TBWA to run the ads once so that they could be entered in the Cannes competition, where they won a bronze award. According to Blogging for China, Amnesty has now claimed no involvement with the dissemination of the ads, pointing out that its web address was incorrectly listed on the ad (it is Amnesty.org, not Amnesty.com). However, according to Blogging for China's DJ, the organization knew the wrong web address was a minor error.