Tuesday, January 15, 2008
French Companies and Genocidal Dictators, redux
It seems that Citroën decided to use a CGI-ified video of Mao to advertise a car in China. This, predictably, raised a minor firestorm of protest. Regrettably, the protest did not come from those offended by the use of a genocidal dictator to sell a car, but, well, lets take a look:
“The image has been wantonly distorted by the ad’s designers. Mao looks very strange,” Chinese state newspaper the Global Times observed Tuesday.
“As a Chinese, I felt greatly insulted when seeing this ad,” a posting on web portal Tianya (http://www.tianya.com) said. “It is not only insulting Chairman Mao, but the whole Chinese nation.”
“Chairman Mao is the symbol of China, and what Citroen did lacks basic respect to China...”
Citroën, of course, raised the traditional white flag:
Citroen expresses regret for any displeasure caused by the advertisement and apologizes to all who have been hurt by it…
Just in case the first white flag was not understood, a local spokescritter reaffirmed the surrender:
Citroen reiterates its friendship with the Chinese people, and highly respects China’s representative figures and symbols
I submit that there is only one proper course of action ...
... CharlieMao: 
Editor’s note: It seems to me that there’s probably meme-space available for RoflMao too, but I’ll leave that as an exercise for another artist.
Comments & Trackbacks
My first thought was that “Mao” and “Meow” are close enough for things like, “IM IN UR REVOLUTION, TAKN A STEP 4WRD.” Then I remembered that the Chinese believe cats say “Wan, wan” instead of “Meow, meow.”
The Chinese word for cat is meow’r, one syllable.
This is as close an approximation as I can get with an American keyboard.
> The image has been wantonly distorted
Shouldn’t that have been wonton-ly distorted? He’s such a cute little dumpling.
Wheels, just for you.
You guys did notice who wrote this, didn’t you?
Are you referring to DougS? Oh, him?
So, you’ll let just anybody walk in here and post, eh? :D
I’m still waiting for Wheels to bitch about spewing coffee on his keyboard.
Welcome, Doug!
PS- Jed: nice picture of the Chairman.
Thanks, Dave.
I didn’t see it until a few minutes ago - saw it on your site before I got back here to check the other comments.
I will also note that the Chinese buffet at 44th & Wadsworth has a sign on one of the steam tables that reads, “Wanton soup.”