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.......

Beijing-based PR blogger Imagethief offers his take on Sanlu's ongoing milk crisis.Damai of Blogging for China shares his thoughts on modern-day Uyghur Christians.Joel Martinsen of Danwei takes us on a journey back in time for a look at some classic Chinese television commercials.Jason Inch of China Supertrends questions whether the halfpat is really China's new expat.Fons Tuinstra of China Herald says China will relax its visa policies, but only after the October national holidays. Video:......

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......

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. One key difference is Adidas' decision to invest in being an official sponsor of the games. This grants advantages like the right to use trademarked images (the rings, the event's logo, the words "Beijing 2008"),......

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. And, really, we have our doubts that the pictured serving of rice topped with butter is going to have the desired slimming effect based on the plate's other contents, or lack thereof. You may also also enjoy this other 1960s rice ad which makes up for what it......

Photo courtesy of Danwei. 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......

Coca-Cola's latest commercial push before the Olympics features the TV commercial "Shuang City," starring Yao Ming as a torch bearer leading fans to the "Bird's Nest" stadium and shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle (best known for working with directors Wong Kar-Wai and Zhang Yimou). Of course, as WSJ's Sky Canaves describes it, the commercial plays up the "feel-good" aspects of the Games: divers jump from skyscrapers, gymnasts leap through the streets and giant balloons emerge......

It's hard to name a global brand that has had smarter China marketing practices than Nike. The series of advertising shorts above, first posted on YouTube two years ago, features everyday Chinese who can't help but turn their day-to-day lives into athletic showcases. A flat round cracker in a university cafeteria becomes a discus; a pair of boys use a repairman's bucket as a basketball hoop; a young woman uses judo moves to take......

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

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......

Nationalism has made its way into Olympic advertising as as this new television commercial by Chinese sports brand Anta shows. JWT Shanghai (part of the WPP Group) conceptualised the ad for Anta, saying it was "inspired by Chinese people’s response to the earthquake". Said the China chief executive of the agency, Tom Doctoroff:“We decided to extend the brand message from individual glory to national glory, encouraging everyone in China to stand tall through these obstacles.”......

“Asia is a market we have never really cracked. They don’t think they smell, but people everywhere smell” - Russell Taylor, Unilever - Whilst the UK currently leads the rest of the world in deodorant spending at around 125RMB per person annually, China's average is 0RMB with only 7 per cent of all of Asia reckoned to be using BO basher. It's no surprise then that Unilever (the people who make Axe / Lynx, Sure,......

Spot any interesting ad in your neighbourhood? Snap a picture and send it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com!......

Thomas Crampton, on a recent trip to Shanghai, catches up with Paul French of Access Asia. French says that so much of what Doctoroff, CEO, Greater China of J. Walter Thompson, and others claim as pioneering was done 80 years ago by adman Carl Crow (of whom he wrote a biography). We're still not quite sure what to think of French's views yet, but we know Doctoroff's Twelve Facts about the Confucian Consumer left us......

Photo by John Biesnecker From John Biesnecker of Mukokuseki:On pretty much every flat surface in Shanghai (and, likely, the rest of China) you can find ads for various (often illegal) services. Some are little stickers, and others are spraypainted. They have a short description of what they offer (fake IDs, prostitutes, movers, etc.) and a cell phone number (easily obtained and disposed of, despite China Mobile’s efforts to the contrary). On the bridge outside......

Photo from Asian Offbeat. The above Coca Cola ad image used in the window of a shop in Bremen, Germany, which features Tibetan monks with the caption "Make it real" has come under the spotlight lately, as Chinese netizens question if the company supports Tibetan independence. From Guardian Unlimited:First Tibetan exile groups attacked Coca-Cola for sponsoring the Olympic torch relay. Now the soft drink company is under fire from the other side of the......

This is an ad for ad agency BBDO-CNUAC's name change to BBDO China, which has been criticised by Charles Frith of the Punk Planning blog — and quite rightly, we think — as reflecting a "fixation on quantity and speed over quality":Here the agency conveys that their staff are the hardest and fastest working people in the business, overwhelmingly dedicated to servicing the client - Not one reference to creativity, craftsmanship, innovation, thought leadership or......

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......

Two recent stories from the Shanghai subway system might be worth your notice:A score of news reports are heralding new measures to alleviate passenger load on Line 2 trains on the Pudong side, where Zhangjiang High-Tech Park station has become one of the metro system's highest trafficked stations due to what the Xinmin Evening Post calls “白领客流”, the "white-collar passenger flow". More trains are being added to both the morning and afternoon rush hours, and......

The gory posters promoting driving safely are not for the squeamish and, although found in public places around China, they are not for children. The drive safety campaigns have chosen an aggressive "show", not "tell"approach here, not dissimilar from the anti-smoking campaigns in some countries, where real images of cancerous lungs, rotted teeth and fetal babies are put on cigarette packs as a warning to smokers. But this drive safety ad campaign, featuring real images......

Chinese television actually isn't as bad as most of us are inclined to think, we've chanced upon informative talkshows and documentaries on interesting subjects sometimes. But the rest of the time, horrendous TV commercials are on hand to remind us why we're better off watching bootleg DVDs or Project Runway on Tudou.com. Should anyone think nothing can be more jarring than Mr Whipple, then they haven't seen the latest TVC by Shanghai-based wool clothing brand,......

While reading up on the latest lawsuits brought against Baidu by the world's top music labels, we were alerted to this old Baidu advertisement that stars Hong Kong funnyman Stephen Chow (周星馳) as Ming Dynasty poet Tang Bohu (唐伯虎). In the 1min 50 sec long spot, Tang Bohu endeavours to charm over a girl with a Caucasian man who says nothing apart from “我知道” (I understand) in all the wrong tones. The Caucasian represents Google,......

UPDATE: We're actually having some trouble getting these videos to play here on our Shanghai ADSL connection. Anyone (in China) having any luck? OK, it works when we have our VPN turned on. Try that or maybe a proxy. Happy Super Bowl ... Monday, everyone. We hope you are well into your third beer and/or breakfast burrito when reading this. We have a confession to make. We haven't seen a Super Bowl commercial for......

Have you got an opinion? Shanghaiist has started publishing opinion pieces from readers on selected weekends, so if you feel like you've got something to get off your chest, email it to us at info AT shanghaiist DOT com and if we like it, we will publish it under this column. China Gets Beijing and Shanghai Ready for the 2008 Olympics and 2010 Expo By Jeffrey Wasserstrom China's economy is booming like never before and......

This ad by French car-maker Citroen reads: Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. 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.Needless to say, the ad invoked the fury of the Chinese community in Spain and Citroen was forced to issue an......

We want some of whatever this guy is smoking: "Haibao is a jolly, confident and cute kid," said Shao Longtu, 62, CEO of the Jiumuchuansheng advertising company and head of the mascot design team. "Using a human being as a mascot reflects the spirit of human-orientation, while the color blue stands for water, sea, the Earth, life, dreams, the future and technology," Shao said. ... "The mascot is a perfect match for the emblem. It......

Last week we were coasting on Shanghai Metro Line No. 2 when our attention was suddenly seized by this new Adidas ad displayed on the LCD next to the exit. We were so awestruck by the concept and grandeur of the commercial that we momentarily lost all of our cynicism about big corporations pushing merchandise...and almost missed our stop. Then, as we got on the escalator off the Huangpi Lu exist, we noticed the entire......

Since making a Snake Plissken-style escape from Pudong, the Puxi landmark that has inexorably drawn our eye as we survey the okay-for-the price view from our garret hasn't been the Sauronesque spire of the Marriott, nor the guy who does his Ghost Dog workout on the roof opposite each morning, but rather an advert for pants. Or "briefs" to those of you who've escaped the yoke of Queen Elizabeth II. Calvin Klein briefs, to be......

Talking out of the ass takes on a new meaning with this highly arresting environmental ad campaign by the Guangdong Advertising Agency [1], conceptualised and put together by an entirely Chinese creative team. We couldn't help but notice the underwear marks left on the guy's ass. Just what kind of underwear leaves that kind of a mark? Also: we wonder if this ad will ever see the light of day in China? [1] This......

One of the things that makes being on the tube during rush hour even more miserable than we had previously imagined possible is the "film" made by Starbucks and Pepsi showing on the subway TV. Titled 晴天日记 (Qingtian riji), the film is about a young man and a young woman, blah blah blah. Of course the film takes place in Shanghai but most of the scenes take place in Starbucks. We think the whole rationale......