Journalist and blogger Thomas Crampton is now posting some of his work on Danwei.
Funny story by Geoffrey Fowler in the Wall Street Journal revealing an official Olympic sponsor with advertisements that are not entirely truthful (Cue: sounds of pained shock and horror).
Turns out that the “parents” pictured here with hurdler and gold-medal hopeful Liu Xiang’s are fake.
The ad, for the milk drink Satine, reads: “A delicacy among dairy products, Satine is my choice.”
While his parents have said in past interviews that their son grew up drinking milk, the people in the picture are actors.
The official explanation given to Fowler:
“The parents were shy,” says Tom Doctoroff, the north Asia chief executive of WPP Group’s JWT, which made the Satine ad for the brand’s parent company, Yili. “But they approved the concept.”
While companies are keen to capitalize on China’s reverence of family, Fowler points out that the use of actors as parental stand-ins carries the risk of backlash.