From the category archives:

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Volkswagen; Glamour with a Twist.

08.27.2010 Events
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Got this one from the guys over at DMG; it’s a Volkswagen ad, executed beautifully; the story removes the pretentiousness of glamour, replacing it with a mischievous twist. This humanizes the brand, rather than the stale “buy this car, become famous” we have “you don’t need glamour, glamour comes standard.” While we’ll see ads like TBWA’s Adidas Olympics [...]

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The sexual dilemma of the Chinese woman.

08.20.2010 Print
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Picked this up via Han Jun Wei and Buzzandthecity; it’s a funny look at Chinese women’s dating options in China. Beyond the beauty of the photos, there’s also some sharp commentary on Chinese culture as well. I’m wondering what a reversed “dilemma of Chinese men” collection would look like. My guess is that the model [...]

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Tencent; Hail to the King of China’s Copycats.

07.26.2010 Insights
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Picked this one up via Danwei and Thomas Morffew; it’s a cover story from China Computer World bashing Tencent, the very powerful internet company behind QQ and numerous others. As you can guess, it’s not very flattering.

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Acuma; Beautifully Irrelevant China Advertising.

07.16.2010 Acuma
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Here’s some beautiful ads that have zero demonstration of Brand USP, and are actually a bit forgettable in the end after the initial “ooo thats nice” reaction fades into “… zzzzz”.

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Guinness; Tapping the androgynous market?

12.22.2009 Guinness
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When I think of the brand Guinness, I think of dark, heavy frothy beer; perfect for a late night drink, perhaps in a semi-modern, upscale bar; usually during a causal business meeting; “business drunk” (which I’m told is similar to “rich drunk” but have yet to verify personally). Now I know that I’m not like you, [...]

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Domesticated Ancient Chinese Warriors.

12.16.2009 Print
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I picked this one up from LRB forums. It’s  campaign for YangHe, a famous alcoholic spirit in China. What’s interesting? Looking online many non-Chinese think this campaign is great; but to a local Chinese it looks totally ridiculous. The campaign depicts several ancient heroes including Zhang Fei, a warrior general of the Three Kingdoms period (around 200 A.D.) [...]

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Associating “Volkswagen” with “Pee”.

12.14.2009 Print
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Ah yes; the holy grail of advertising is to somehow link your brand to urine. Wait; that doesn’t sound right… I’m not sure what the thinking behind this one was; I guess they were able to check the “catch attention” box; but whether they got the “memorable brand message” is something else altogether; cause in [...]

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Fear & Loathing in Chinese Advertising.

10.21.2009 BWCDF
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Here’s a cute campaign, excellent art direction and visuals tie together a memorable piece, sort of like a knife wrapped in hello kitty pajamas. Pretty universal in message: parents be paranoid; the message is communicated through a typical landscape of childhood dreams, which upon closer inspection reveal dangers such as eating pins, stepping on mines, [...]

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Audi; Copycat Campaign, Awful Tagline.

09.21.2009 Audi
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Audi’s recent campaign is interesting, albeit a semi-copycat of an earlier 2008 VW campaign; it features a mud splattered into traditional Chinese painting on their off-road Q7. So ya ok; we can check the appropriate boxes: 1. There is a car in the ad? Check. 2. There is something off-roadish about the ad? Check. 3. There is [...]

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DHL; Awesome China Magazine Advertising.

09.21.2009 DHL
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Here’s a cool magazine ad from DHL; simple, clean, and effective. The main communication here is you can “instantly” send a package from China to Japan. Unfortunately the imagery that represents China is pretty similar to the imagery that symbolizes Japan, so at first look, it seems like the two recipients could be down the [...]

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Mengniu; Celebrating adolescent superficiality.

09.02.2009 Mengniu
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I picked up this from LRB’s forum. These ads for Mengniu (a major China dairy giant) launched in early 2009; the product is fruit yogurt drinks that combine fruits, vegetables, milk and nutrition targeted to Chinese teenagers. This is a great example of empathizing how Chinese kids really feel, and their uncontrollable desire for simple [...]

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