OOPS! Toyota's China CM depicts the Marco Polo Bridge

[Taro Toporific]

Maro Polo Bridge
Toyota apologizes for 'humiliating' car ads
( 2003-12-05 09:48 ) (China Daily HK Edition)... advertisement depicts a traditional Chinese-style stone-carved lion saluting a moving Prado GX, whose Chinese translation means "despotic manner". "You have to pay respect to it," reads the slogan.
The other shows a Land Cruiser pulling a cumbersome Chinese-made truck on a bumpy road on a plateau....
Many connect the stone-carved lion with those carved on the Marco Polo Bridge, where Japanese imperial troops launched a full-scale invasion of China in 1937. The bridge has become one of the symbols of humiliation China has suffered in modern history.

[Robato]

Wow its amazing how the Chinese hate the Japanese so much they read between the lines over every single thing japanese.

Its like those college students who did a play at the university and the chinese exploded like a nuclear bomb over it.

I mean honestly...if you seen a commercial with the president soluting a toyota car or the statue of liberty holding up a toyota symbol, would you be offended? (I would probably find it humorous)

damn, the invasion of the Japanese happened 70 years ago....to top it off the majority of the Japanese people dont even know that their country invaded china, much less throw it in the face of the great grand children of the people who were actually invaded.

[Big Booger]

Why do Japanese not run this buy a Chinese professor of Sociology in a research testing ground to see if these types of things can in any way be found to be offensive? I mean surely they do block testings, research and so on to weed out this kind of stuff.

But How does the Toyota pulling the chinese made truck have anything to do with it?

Ford and Chevy have always touted each other in their ads..

I think they are looking for excuses to attack Japan, because Chinese teach their people to hate Japanese for the shit that happened 70,80, and 90 years ago...

This is what communism does to people.. they have no way to get outside information about anything. A shame.

[blackcat]

"Wow its amazing how the Chinese hate the Japanese so much they read between the lines over every single thing japanese."

I disagree, japan have no Knowlege of history ("to top it off the majority of the Japanese people dont even know that their country invaded china") and very little cultural sensitivity (unless its about them)!!

read this thread and see who really hates who and always look to sterotype them in a negative way.

Gov't refuses 90% of Chinese student applicants due to crime fears

[Socratesabroad]

I mean honestly...if you seen a commercial with the president soluting a toyota car or the statue of liberty holding up a toyota symbol, would you be offended? (I would probably find it humorous)

Sure, and if I saw a US commercial with a Ford truck zipping up Mt. Fuji with the message 'Ford - You've got to respect it' I'm sure I'd get a chuckle out of it. Would the Japanese? And there lies the rub.

OK, the truck ad is relatively harmless, so I'll admit complaints about it are probably overblown. But taking a national symbol out of context and plastering your product on it with the copy 'Pay respect' is a bit much.

Setting: the Arc d' Triumphe
'BMW - This is how you earn respect'

I could keep going, but I'll stop because we all get the point, I assume.

Just got to wonder if Toyota actually did the ad or an ad firm suggested it...

[Caustic Saint]

Stuff like this kind of annoys me. I can see where the Chinese would take offense, but at the same time - so what? Nothing wrong with national pride, just get over yourselves. Something offended you? In an ad where somebody was trying to sell you something? Easy solution, vote with your wallet. Let the offender know how much you disapprove by not buying their products.

Crap like this would go away if people were a bit more thick-skinned. Why can't the Chinese just say, "wow, those guys at Toyota are pretty ignorant. No way are they ever going to sell cars in China with that attitude"?

And wouldn't it be more fun to see a new story titled "Toyota to Chinese - Suck it up, whiners"?

[Socratesabroad]

[jez]

Isn't Toyota in China run by local people? Surely there must be Chinese people working for Toyota in that country, and not just the ones on the assembly line. Is it possible that Chinese working for Toyota weren't offended by the ads, but someone whipped up an argument after the ads were out?
I think we should be very careful when 'nationalism' is involved in the argumjent. 'Nationalism' is a manufactured concept, used to harness the masses, and not only in so-called dictatorships such as China. Most people wouldn't give a damn about stories such as these, if it wasn't for propagandist media serving the elite.

[Robato]

Sure, and if I saw a US commercial with a Ford truck zipping up Mt. Fuji with the message 'Ford - You've got to respect it' I'm sure I'd get a chuckle out of it. Would the Japanese? And there lies the rub....

I think that this is all opinion...but I feel that if there was a ford truck climbing mount fuji and it reaches the top and the slogan says "you gotta respect it" that Japanese would have no problem with it. (unless you are talking about the average racist 65 year old) I know for a fact that my 20s-mid 30s friends wouldnt find it offensive AT ALL.

Its racism that spawns the "why is it that only black olives are in the can? The light skinned olives are in a jar free to see the light!!!....why is it that you get blackmailed and black balled...why not use white balled??"

There are always going to be people that hate another to read inbetween the lines of a subject that doesnt relate to another in the slightest form.

OK, the truck ad is relatively harmless, so I'll admit complaints about it are probably overblown. But taking a national symbol out of context and plastering your product on it with the copy 'Pay respect' is a bit much.

Thats a nice opinion, but I beg to differ. I feel they are both fine and non racist. The car ad was just that. It would have been bad taste to drive on the bridge over thousands of dead chinese soldiers...but this ad had nothing at all to do with war.

I could keep going, but I'll stop because we all get the point, I assume.

Just got to wonder if Toyota actually did the ad or an ad firm suggested it...

I get your point, I just complete disagree with it.

About your question. Usually ads are done locally to target local audiences. So I am 99.999% sure it was a chinese marketer who came up with the idea.

[Taro Toporific]

Wow its amazing how the Chinese hate the Japanese so much they read between the lines over every single thing japanese....

Here's the Marco Polo Bridge again in the news..
GETS GRUDGE!

A Chinese man waves the national flag to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the Nanjing massacre, December 13, 2003 at the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing. China says about 300,000 civilians were killed when Japanese troops overran the eastern city in December, 1937....
REUTERS/China / Sat Dec 13, 6:27 AM ET