From the category archives:

Outdoor

Dior; “Racist” China Advertising Campaign.

08.16.2010 Dior
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Picked this one up via LRB forums and Shanghaiist. It’s a recent campaign by Dior that visually treads the lines into racism against the Chinese. Interesting brand positioning “yes”; ability to catch attention and stir conversations “yes”; creates loyalty and brand affinity “no”; and therein lies the rub; one little “no” can ruin any good [...]

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Phillips; “Better Technology, Better Life”.

07.28.2010 Outdoor
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Picked this one up via Adquan; it’s a Phillips campaign recently launched by DDB Shanghai, in conjunction with Shanghai Expo and the theme “Better City, Better Life”. The primary focus is viewing Phillips’ “better life” value-add through the eyes of a child. This is a route thats been done before by many giants; normally when [...]

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Suntory; Lazy Thinking in China Advertising.

07.13.2010 Outdoor
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Suntory’s latest ad, seen in Shanghai’s subway, attempts to sell Suntory’s oolong tea by showing a model eating a pizza… did you just experience a disconnect? You are not alone.

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Wildaid; Shooting Glass with Money.

01.18.2010 Outdoor
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This recent campaign by Wildaid is pretty interesting; I’d venture to say most wildlife protection advertising is great; as their primary focus is to shock the crap out of you to get you to change your point of view. In this particular campaign seen in China’s subways; Wildaid shoots endangered animal posters with money, through [...]

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Kingston; Targeting China’s IT Stoners.

09.13.2009 Kingston
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Here’s a good example of a “Lost in Translation” ad; likely either done by a local agency, or the brand’s localized marketing staff.The original message is: “Set your enthusiasm on fire”; followed by an English sentence that says “WE  are HIGH”… now there’s a line that has some stopping power. Now I know this is [...]

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Jissbon; Condom Branded China Bicycles.

09.13.2009 Jissbon
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So I’m walking to the bank the other day and as I was waiting I spotted this bicycle parked on the sidewalk with a condom mascot on it. Now I’m assuming this is just one of those things you see in China, but for the sake of amusement, and also to kill a little time [...]

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Supergluing Shanghai bridge increases sales by 120% during first month.

07.07.2009 Outdoor
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Great outdoor ad mixes economic budget with maximum results. This PR stunt drove awareness from China media, magazines, newspaper, and websites (like this one). Brand awarness/recall peaked at 96% and sales figure for the period exceeded 120% beyond original targets. Looks like we have a winner here.

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Midea; Ad for electric fan… kinda blows.

07.06.2009 Midea
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When I first saw this I thought; that’s pretty creative. But then I realized that the main copy of the ad is in English; when targeted to a Chinese crowd, it’s probably better to use Chinese. So your argument will likely be this: many educated Chinese CAN read English. Yes that’s true, but the target [...]

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ZhuJiang; Taxi Cab Beer Advertising.

06.24.2009 Outdoor

Our friends from the west will notice the “drinking and driving” conventional wisdom disconnect. The saving grace then is this is taxi cab ad, which implies that you are not the one drinking; you are the one rolling around drunk in the backseat as your driver speeds down a small alley dodging residents, bicycles, motorbikes, [...]

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Jianlibao; Promotional straws “plug” users into liquid energy.

06.22.2009 Jianlibao

This is great – simple and effective.

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Siemens; Washing the long tail.

06.17.2009 Outdoor

Great variation of a common sight in China. I’ve walked many a mall and have seen these long streams hanging from the face of buildings; they never really got my attention. However with Sieman’s easy twist, the common becomes alive. The communication is clear and sticks in the head.

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