Made for television

“Didn’t we help make the financial crisis too?”

Aren’t most things made in China these days? It’s a comment (or lament, perhaps) heard frequently enough. So you might think it’s a little superfluous to launch an international advertising campaign to convey a similar message.

Neverthless, the nation’s Ministry of Commerce has been running 30 second ads on CNN with the slogan “Made in China: Made with the world”. The campaign was created by DDB Guoan, a unit of New York-based Omnicom Group, and is designed to bolster China products’ reputation for quality. Likewise it is supposed to convey the message that things made in China involve cooperation with other countries. Thus the TV ad shows an evening gown with a label stating ‘Made in China with French designers’. Reaction to the campaign has been mixed. China Daily celebrates it as “groundbreaking”. But as one netizen remarked: “It appears to tell the world that China has no designers and only coolies.”

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