Category Archives: Advertising and Marketing

Ben Marcom Weekly: Sex appeal in Chinese advertising

Posted on 2004-07-07 by Eric Mu

Most Chinese people will remember a TV commercial for a gum called Qing Zui with the opening line of: “Do you want to feel the taste of kissing?” Advertising using explicit sexual messages did not go further on Chinese TV: … Continue reading →

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Li Xianpeng endorses Longines

Posted on 2004-07-05 by Eric Mu

Longines placed a full page back cover ad in July 5’s Beijing Youth Weekly, an endorsement from gymnast Li Xiaopeng. The ad promotes Longines’ Olympic series watch and relates events. 23-year-old Li Xiaopeng is the captain of Chinese men’s gymnastics … Continue reading →

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Motorola Shanghai nostalgia

Posted on 2004-07-02 by Tsingsong

This is a new Motorola advertisement appearing on billboards and in glossy magazines. The copy means ‘MOTO nostalgia’ or ‘MOTO era’, highlighting the Shanghai 1930s feel of the image. Click to enlarge.

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Ben Marcom Wednesday: Grannie Wang and the IT industry

Posted on 2004-06-29 by Tsingsong

There’s a Chinese saying ‘Grannie Wang boasts about her melons in order to sell them’ (王婆买瓜，自卖自夸). In other words, she blows her own trumpet, so you can’t really believe her when she says the melons are tasty. So what does Grannie Wang do? Well, she can hire a ‘tuor‘ ( 托儿) and a ‘muliao‘ (幕僚). A tuor is a kind of tout employed to say good things about a company or product to entice customers; muliao is an old Chinese word meaning an advisor to a high official or general.

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Artificial babe, robot soccer player

Posted on 2004-06-26 by Jeremy Goldkorn

Yang Yuan is a young woman who was recently disqualified from the Miss Intercontinental beauty pageant after the organizers discovered she had had plastic surgery. She said she was going to sue the pageant which caused little media storm. But … Continue reading →

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24 Hour People Party

Posted on 2004-06-24 by Jeremy Goldkorn

China’s real estate marketeers continue their descent from the ridiculous to the absurd: here’s a billboard lightbox for a new development in Beijing called ‘People Party’. The Chinese word used for ‘party’ is not of the political type, but the … Continue reading →

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Dead celebrity endorsement

Posted on 2004-06-24 by Jeremy Goldkorn

Audrey Hepburn’s face has appeared on urban billboards all over China this summer, endorsing ‘Afternoon Tea’ a range of iced tea products produced by Japan’s Kirin Breweries. The text to the right of Hepburn’s portrait reads: Oh my beloved black … Continue reading →

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Ben Marcom Wednesday: Chinese sports stars in advertising

Posted on 2004-06-23 by Tsingsong

Sports celebrity endorsements are heavily used in China, not only by sporting goods but even products like Chinese liquor and junk food. This weeks Ben Marcom Wednesday is a review of the some prominent sports celebrity endorsements. Yao Ming and … Continue reading →

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The whole country is like a start-up

Posted on 2004-06-23 by Jeremy Goldkorn

Martin Sorrel is the head of WPP, the group that owns Ogilvy, J. Walter Thompson and many other companies whose work occupies significant chunks of your brain. The Financial Times quotes Mr Sorrel: “In my view, China is so important … Continue reading →

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Can humans really give up cigarettes?

Posted on 2004-06-23 by Jeremy Goldkorn

The Chinese tobacco industry has an easier time than its counterparts in the US and Europe. China is a country where restaurants with non-smoking sections could probably be counted with the fingers of two hands: the anti-tobacco lobby is not … Continue reading →

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