Nike's Lebron James video game ad banned in China

[confucius]

I'm lovin' it; how all of China is in an uproar over the Nike LeBron James video game style ad featuring flying apsaras swirling around US dollar bills and LeBron James bouncing a basketball off of a Chinese kung fu master and then kicking him down after a slam dunk.

http://www.chinapr.com.cn/web/NewsCenter/ViewNews.asp?ID=10390

The NBA's commissioner, David Stern, must have choked on his chop suey when he heard Chinese people are now accusing LeBron James of insulting China's culture.

The popular slang idiom, "there's a billion people in China that don't care" will once and for all be dismissed!

I can't wait for LeBron to make his first public appearance in China. This is going to be great!

[wushijiao]

Tell me: would the Man have banned a video game ad featuring a kung fu master going against another Chinese kung fu master? No. Would the man have banned a ad featuring a Chinese kung fu master going after a nasty white street brawler? No. Did the Man ban a strong black man outplayin' a highly respected Chinese kung fu master....? I think there is more than one group being offended.

[roddy]

Guardian's picked up on this.

Interesting that the ban seems to be a reaction to internet opinion - wonder what the world would look like if all decisions were made via forums and chatrooms

Roddy

[geraldc]

If you look at it the other way, i.e. if there was an advert featuring a Chinese table tennis or badminton player, taking on challenges from let's say different cartoon Africans and animals from African myth, while an African voice over reads out pseudo philosophical lines in an attempt to boost sales of various items of sportswear in Africa. I'm pretty sure that the idea wouldn't even get off the drawing board.

However I am in a way impressed that the US version of the ad (available on the Nike website) uses subtitles to translate the Chinese rather than someone speaking English with a Chinese accent.

[confucius]

The key phrase in the Guardian article is indeed "initial approval of state censors"

Does this demonstrate that state censors are out of touch with their own country's feelings? I too am delighted at the fact that Chinese Internet forums and chat rooms now have influence on national Chinese government decisions. I shall infiltrate more of them in the future, acting as the Lebron James of international espionage!