consumers here and there

These ads are all over the place, but apparently not any more. The reason for the logo in the bottom right corner is that the picture is a screen grab taken from Chinese bulletin boards, where the ad is the scandal du jour among the fenqing. According to Roland Soong, the ads are being withdrawn – in Britain - in the face of a threatened boycott of Procter and Gamble’s Chinese operations.

I’ve seen them here and there in Manchester. It’ll be interesting to see if they do in fact disappear.

Elsewhere, Sun Bin carries an interview between Der Spiegel and the head of Adidas, the company that provided chav camouflage for the Chinese paramilitaries escorting the torch. Short version: the man don’t give a fuck.

SPIEGEL: Don't you have to weigh the damage you inflict on your image in the West for not taking a position on China, against the losses you would incur in the Chinese market if you did speak out?

Hainer: No. The criticism is especially loud in Germany and France, but it's significantly quieter in many other countries. And in Asia, not just in China, people are looking forward to the games with great anticipation. I also believe that Western consumers -- unlike some in politics and the media -- understand our role correctly. We are involved in the Olympics because we make equipment for athletes. In any event, we have received more emailed complaints in the past about issues like the use of kangaroo leather in our shoe production than we have recently had about China. We have not noticed any damage to our image so far.

SPIEGEL: Would you have any objection to the Dalai Lama wearing Adidas?

Hainer: Not at all. Actually it's always been my goal to one day see the pope wearing our three stripes. With a German pope, the chances of that happening have never been as good.

SPIEGEL: After his operations, former Cuban President Fidel Castro appeared in an Adidas tracksuit several times.

Hainer: We don't have a problem with that, either.

Comments

[john b]

My Mandarin is a bit ropey - why exactly is the P&G advert supposed to be offensive (apart from being a crap pun)? It seems to be saying:

1) there's notoriously a lot of tea in China
2) teacups are made of China
3) tea stains teacups
4) our product is really good at removing stains, so even if you've drunk a lot of tea we'll make your teacup clean.

Which bit are they taking offence at...?

[jamie]

Christ knows: their fenqing don't make any more sense than our wingnuts. Maybe they interpreted it as China being a stain which should be removed. It's all anti-semitic pizza to me.