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.”

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 all but confused. more ›