It’s no secret that there’s an obvious tension between China, HK, and Taiwan; Visa uses this political balance in their latest ad to showcase the Card’s universal appeal.
In the ad,three groups of people (from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) have an argument over dinner check. All speaking Mandarin with their local accents—the man from mainland, in an almost commanding tone, “Renminbi! (RMB)” The Taiwanese provokes, “New Taiwan Dollar…(NTD)” Then the Hong Konger jitters, “How about Hong Kong Dollar?(HKD)” All of a sudden, all the guests at table go into a heated argument, with the Taiwan and the Mainland opposing to each other, the Hong Kong, the conciliatory diplomat. (Exactly parallel to the current political situation!)
Eventually our heroine waitress shows up with an idea of everybody-use-visa-nobody-use-cash solution, yet all three parties still insist in paying respectively(Of course they do). Thus, the theme of one Visa card is universal in Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan is unwrapped.
If reading between the lines, the relations of the three parties at table reflect the political relations in reality. The mainland is quite commanding, but Taiwan hasn’t reunited to Mainland, and they apparently dare to oppose Mainland publicly. Hong Kong never bear a strong nationalism and they lay their eyes on economy. Returned 12 years ago, Hong Kong has well balanced and coexisted with Mainland. Thus Hong Kong plays a conciliating role in the three. All three parties are independent in management and economy, of course they pay the check respectively.
Chinese Reactions.
The ad flipped the sensitive nerves of some Chinese netizens on www.tianya.cn (the best known and most powerful forum in Chinese-speaking network environment), who condemned that the TV ad discriminated against Hong Kong people and provoked relations among three regions. Most of the netizens reasoned the few others over reacted. The discussion wasn’t quite big though, and it seemed most people enjoyed the flavor of the ad.
Some comments on the debate of this ad from www.tianya.cn:
爱西安3:
Yes, It is.
思无涯行有制:
Fuck.It’s really how things are…
tangjianyi:
There are many fucking morons every year, and particularly in the current one.
火白水 :
HA! Just that ad, insulted? Hong Kong people don’t have those nationalism, or jump at any poking thing.
无敌转移:
Listen OP: We are 5 times better than them, how could we not feel superior!!
热插拔事件:
Many Hong Kong people just talk in that way. If you don’t believe me, go to Hong Kong to check out yourself.
三季稻感:
OP is an idiot.The ad is disgusting, especially the big mouth girl. Her fans, don’t scold me.
夏花朵朵开:
Guo Furong~~first time to watch it, very funny！
犟妹子:
That pay respectively is the most funny part.
小慧的马甲:
Watched on Lvyou Channel repeatedly, till bored!
疯狂吃面:
Stupid ad, funny point= 0.
新新小粽:
“Country girl” is Chen Yao. I don’t think she is a country girl, she is cute~~~~
五灵归宗:
Sister Fu’s ad~~~, it’s just ok, but the theme is still clear.
昆仑玉簪子:
Xiao Guo is cute, ad boring.
babysorry2008:
Ads need to behave themselves.
布瓜SAMA:
RMB is vigorous…
New Taiwan Dollar guy looks pussy when he starts to talk “New Taiwan Dollar~~”
Taiwan tone is soft in saying anything Hong Kong guy is just for fun here “How about Hon Kon Doll~~”
About www.tianya.cn:
Tianya is the biggest global Chinese online forum with over 23,000,000 registered users. With the solid foundation of 1.3 billions of population, Tianya is thriving on grass-roots influence. Those grass roots are willing to contribute to this great cause. If you have acquantaince with Chinese public voice, you must have heard those names, Furong Jiejie (perhaps the Chinese Amy Winehouse just without any talents and 3 times larger in size), Tianxian Meimei(a beautiful country girl discovered by some tourist), who was brought to stage simply by the website. It also contributed a lot when snowstorm,Wenchuan earthquake happened in 2008, and agglomerated Chinese netizens fighting against disasters side by side.
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Thomas Morffew
Rand
Charles Frith
Veronica
Jade
Duncan Leung
Andrew
Chris Golden
Mao Ruiqi
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Notwithstanding that the production values are superb, the cultural comedic stereotypes are dead on, especially the Kung-fu waitress, and that the ad stirs water-cooler debates, I am still left with the lingering question if Visa may not have inadvertently entered into an arena-of-discussion where symbolism is taken very, very seriously. That is, as a Western multi-national, have they not perhaps trivialized the tensions (held by some very powerful individuals) via humor? (If possible, I should like very much for you to follow up this most interesting blog with an aftermath summary.)
As it seems to me, Visa has taken a quite risky step on this, but seems we can’t figure out a more vivid way to introduce this Card. However, the netizens’ reactions are fairly smooth, comparing to other hot issues. I’ll certainly keep an close eye on how things are going.
It might be a bit risky with the notion that China and Taiwan can be seated at the same table across from each other “as equals.” This would only bother the mainland fenqing though. Hong Kong definitely had a small role, and I didn’t think the idea that they’re all united in their common insistence of picking up the check (and thus treating the others) was well done with the lame kung-fu antics. I think the commercial could have been a little more poignant without degenerating into that bit of typecasting at the end. Still, I liked the commercial.
@Kai
I agree with you on the kinda abrupt Kung-fun ending. The fun of this ad lies in the characteristic mannerism of the three groups of people, especially when you do know how these people are like in reality(no offense though). I like the ad too!
@ Veronica:
LoL, I’m not sure about the Taiwanese being so cocksure, though I have a Taiwanese friend who is EXACTLY like that. Anyway, great post and would love to see more posts like this analyzing TVCs. Tell Rand to give you a raise.
I will see where we are. If we were in China i will use Renminbi and in Taiwan i will just use NT dollar.I don’t see a conflict there.
by the way, i am a taiwanese.:)
@Sophia
Wow~here is something interesting. It just occured to me that if we really came to this problem, I would actually use Visa…
So probably Visa is the winner.
If you’re in Taipei, as I was two weeks ago (and where this ad is set), you would probably still use NTD. Visa would only make sense if you’re out of cash, or you don’t get charged exorbitant currency exchange fees.