Results tagged “commercials”

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!

So we get that Google's really keen to gobble a little more market share from its rivals in China, and one of the most ingenious ways they've figured to do so is their free mp3 download service. We applaud that. What we don't applaud is their ads promoting the service, which seems to have taken the DIY ethic of viral videos to mean "crappy flash creations evoking the earlier parts of this millennium." Add that to Chinese history tales and you get G.cn's newest ad rush:

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.

The Germans and their notoriously risque advertisements may have bitten off more than they can chew with Doc Morris Pharmaceuticals' most recent condom ads.

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.

A Chinese businessman is trying to sue hurdling champion Liu Xiang after injuring himself while driving a luxury car the Olympian had endorsed. The Jiangxi resident had collided with a truck and banged his nose on the windscreen when the car's airbags failed to activate. His doctor's bill amounted to almost 1000 RMB. Since he had bought the car because of an advert featuring Liu, the hurdler was obviously responsible. In that vein, we're thinking of suing this guy's mother for offending our sensibilities by producing such a dickwad... it makes about as much sense. Source: Reuters

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.

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.

For those planning on hibernating this winter, it just got easier to add those crucial extra layers of fat. Dunkin' Donuts just opened in Shanghai, much to the delight of Marc van der Chijs and probably many other people. SH mag says, "This is supposed to be store number one of one hundred." SH also suggests our city might be in the midst of a "donut war." Aussie brand Donut King opened this month, as well. Our money is on the Americans.

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."

Despite some unfavorable reviews, Jackie Chan is currently riding high on the success of his mega-blockbuster Forbidden Kingdom. As such, many are overlooking his brilliant work currently gracing the international satellite television waves. But no longer. This clip comes from a recent ad campaign by the Hong Kong Travel Association (HKTA), a push to bring more attention to the city hosting the Olympic Games' ever-popular equestrian events that will no doubt help to revitalize the long-dormant talking horse genre (See: Mr. Ed and Hot to Trot).

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.

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 wall was plastered with the same "Impossible is Nothing" advert, this time with Zheng Zhi, midfielder and captain of the China soccer team.

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...

We told you about the Made-in-China scare that is happening outside of China, but let's take another look at what's happening right here right now. A CCTV program (click link for video in Chinese) has investigated a herbal weight loss patch (美国七点瘦) which its manufacturers claim to have helped Chelsea Clinton shed 12 kilograms in less than a month. Users are instructed to stick the patch to the area of the body where they want to lose weight and then just wait for the patch to miraculously suck the fat out of them through the skin (yes you heard that right).

We know you're probably tired of hearing about Valentine's Day, but we just discovered on mop.com the existence of a group called the "Go Die Club" (死死团), whose members are on a mission to eradicate love, or at least the mawkish, sugar-coated thing that passes for love and romance in a consumerist society such as today's China. All the information and links are on this main page, including a history of this group. Word has it that the name first came about in Japan in relation to some manga. The name then spread from Japan to Taiwan and Hong Kong and finally to the PRC. However, to the best of our understanding it wasn't always an "anti-Valentine's Day" or love type of group. However, in China, that's what they become. Their motto is "death to couples," but read furtehr before you dismiss this as the gripes of fugly people that never get laid.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

This has nothing to do with Shanghai, or China for that matter. But we can't get enough of these Japanese television commercials for Suntory Boss coffee drink featuring Oscar-winner and Harvard-grad Tommy Lee Jones. Jones has been appearing in Boss ads for a year now, we think, but we first learned of the campaign recently after a friend returned to Shanghai from Japan confused about the billboards he saw all over the place featuring huge, and not particularly flattering, head shots of the craggy-faced Mr. Jones.

We just saw a commercial for Wang Wang coffee-flavored jelly drops (咖啡果冻) that made us pause and think. It featured a Caucasian man speaking Chinese. If you've seen these types of commercials, you probably know that the voices are dubbed over, and that the accented Chinese you're hearing most likely a Chinese person faking a non-Chinese person's accent.

The basic premise of this film is the love triangle -- married couple and a lover -- that leads to murder. You don't know who does it, and many of the pieces of the puzzle are only filled in via flashback from the point of view of other characters. Of course, if you've seen one of these films you've seen them all -- you know there's going to be a twist in there some where, and the person that you least suspected is going to end up being the bad guy. The problem with Curiosity is that it doesn't try to be anything more than your average, paint-by-the-numbers thriller.

Unfortunately, Shanghaiist didn't make it to the actual track meet, the main attraction of which was the 110m men's hurdles, where Liu Xiang narrowly beat out American Allen Johnson, clocking in at 13.07 to Johnson's 13.09. You can read about some of the other results here. We heard from someone who attended that the musical performers, which included Karen Mok, Lee Hom Wang, and Macy Gray, were lackluster. We didn't make it to the dinner afterwards either, but thanks to Aimee at Blue Frog we made it to the last stop of the night -- the post party, held at the Life Hub, a shopping/entertainment complex up on Gonghe Xin Lu, near Daning Lu in Zhabei District (yes, Zhabei District). Blue Frog catered the event (and is opening a new store in the area) where Liu Xiang was presented with an award and where the other athletes got a chance to drink, dance, and let off some steam. You can check out some of our pictures from the night above.

The Wall Street Journal tells us that the QP marks a change in McD's marketing strategy: Rather than trying to localize their food to suit the palettes of the Chinese, they are, with the QP, insisting on the cultural integrity of the product -- almost:

But back to Bing Feng Tea House: The blogger answers his question this way:

We understand it's kind of sad, but we have to admit to getting a little excited when we learn of new foreign beers arriving on the Shanghai market. So we read with curious interest these two stories about two New Zealand beers that have washed up on our shores. The brewery is DB Breweries, a big outfit that owns the likes of Heineken and Amstel. The beers they are sending to Shanghai are Tui and Monteith's Original Ale. Here are the commercial descriptions for the two beers:

For those who have no idea what we are taking about, Shanghaiist is having an 80s-themed Happy Hour this Friday at Freelance. All are welcome. There will be cheap drinks, free food, 80s music and at least one tall white guy wearing slip-on checkered Vans and a "Frankie Says Relax" T-shirt. More party details here. The best (or worst) dressed will get a bottle of Solid XS Vodka, courtesy of the friendly folks at Freelance. Some other prizes could trickle in this week, so stay tuned (and if you are a local business owner and want to donate a prize, please email us at info at shanghaiist.com).

Not unlike theologians of the European middle ages, we've been pondering intractable, almost philosophical problems: For example, is it worse to put prophylactics in your hair or drink water from the Yangtze River?

Shanghaiist just read a recent newspaper article about China's premiere and largest pod/videocasting website , Toodou.com. Our interest piqued, we went over to the site to see what we could find -- and find stuff we did! First off, here's the CNN special on bloggers and podcasters where they interview the founder of Toodou, the US educated Gary Wang. Wang and his Dutch co-founder started the site "out of boredom," which is what cool internet startup business types nonchalantly call what is in fact their shrewed intuition of what's going to become the next big thing. Or they were really bored.

Photo from south.com.cn.

We hate to speak ill of the dead, but Chen Yifei, who died before finishing The Music Box might not be the one to blame for how badly this movie sucked, since it was finished by someone else. We had entertained thoughts of seeing this in the theater, but decided to wait for the DVD "release", and thank the lard we did! This wasn't so much a movie as it was a filmic sketch of a better movie. The film tells the story of Lu Ping (played by Chen Kun), a very in-demand hairdresser in 1930s Shanghai. Lu's troubles begin when he (accidentally) kills an invading Japanese soldier by slicing his throat with the razor that he was supposed to shave the man with. Lu flees to the countryside, where he meets Song Jiayi (played by Zeng Li), the love interest. The rest of the film is really nothing more than cliches and contrivances strung together by the well-worn themes of forbidden romances (she's betrothed to someone else) and the misfortunes of regular Chinese people tossed about by the tumultuous waves of 20th century Chinese history. The romance between Lu and Song is chaste and understated, but unlike In the Mood for Love, for example, there's no development and no tension -- we just have to accept the fact that if you see a shapely woman moving in the shadows or have a jones for metrosexual Chinese men with doleful eyes that you fall in love.