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Advertising and Marketing
Soaking up the Taiwan StraitsPosted by Robert Ness, January 26, 2007 7:11 PM
 The politics of absorbency It features a teacher who takes a group of preschool students to the beach. She points across out at sea and says, "On the other side of this sea is our treasured island, Taiwan." The preschoolers then take out their Hearttex napkins, dip them in the water, then ring them out on the dry sand saying, "We are going to soak the sea dry. That way, little friends in Taiwan can come over and play!" The commercial has been running for some time now on television as well as the supermarket plasma screens. Sticking your brand on a hot political issue and sanitizing it with cute children: could this be a foolproof advertising formula for China? The Hearttex brand is owned by Hengan International Group (恒安集团) a Hong Kong invested firm based in Jinjiang, Fujian province. Jinjiang city is on the coast of the Taiwan strait. |
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Comments on Soaking up the Taiwan Straits
I'm reliably informed these are not sanitary napkins, but just fancy paper towels. makes the idea of kids squeezing 'em out on the beach a bit less surprising.
Noted and corrected. Thanks.
I'm curious - what was the Chinese for the "our treasured island, Taiwan"? Because "寶島" is a common name for Taiwan even in Taiwan - it's basically the translation for Ilha Formosa.
Is a video of this commercial posted online anywhere? I'd be very interested in seeing it.
The original phrasing was "小朋友，海那边，就是我们的宝岛台湾！" According to Wenlin, the 宝岛 can refer to Taiwan.
However, I have only ever heard Formosa translated into the the loan word "福摩萨" fu2mo2sa4.
Its amazing how deeply Chinese propaganda soaks into everyday culture and how amazingly ignorant most people are of this propaganda.
Looks like Lu Hsun was totally right 100 years ago when he wrong the 'Diary of a Madman'...
Even advertisers in the PRC are perpetuating the myths among mainlanders about the Taiwanese. I'm constantly amazed at the misconceptions mainlanders have about Taiwan.