Thanks for the amusing new Chairman Mao screensaver!
The Chinese blogger (Zhai Hua) is right about one thing: Chinese people don't understand humor. (中国人不懂幽默)
I think the problem with the revised ad is that multiple huge portraits of Napoleon don't exist anywhere in France.

Are "the Chinese people" the most sensitive and psychologically most maladjusted on Earth that their feelings are always in jeoaprdy of being hurt and that the rest of the universe must tread upon eggshells when it comes to them?

God I hope this trend of perpetual brownnosing of China in the name of securing product sales ends one day soon...and that "the Chinese people" grow the hell up!

If you think Chinese people are thin-skinned, try selling a car using an image of Mohammed.

As a matter of fact, ad agencies, PR agencies and communication executives at multinationals should just pay more attention to what goes on in the ad world, especially if the companies they represent are global multinationals. In the past few years ads by Nippon Paint (slipping dragon ad), Nike (Lebron James ad), Mc Donalds (kneeling customer ad), and Toyota (four-wheel drive towing a Dongfeng brand truck) made Chinese consumers a little angry. All of the above companies apologized and decided to withdraw their ads. Without now disputing about how sensitive or humorless Chinese consumers may be, the fact of the matter is that this 'sensitivity' is an element that simply has to be factored in when planning and creating ad campaigns directed at Chinese consumers or that feature widely recognised Chinese symbols for campaigns by multinationals in other countries.

For Mao's sake! It was a Citroen ad in Spain targeting the local market! These 'sensitive' Chinese sure don't appear to have any qualms about hurting the feelings of the Spanish people with their lack of respect for the local sense of humour. As the saying goes, when in Madrid...or something like that.